Moderation Alert: Saudis Ban Dogs and Cats in Crackdown on … Flirting

I kid you not.  From AFP:

Saudi Arabia's religious police have announced a ban on selling cats and dogs as pets, or walking them in public in the Saudi capital, because of men using them as a means of making passes at women, an official said on Wednesday. Othman al-Othman, head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Riyadh, known as the Muttawa, told the Saudi edition of al-Hayat daily that the commission has started enforcing an old religious edict.

He said the commission was implementing a decision taken a month ago by the acting governor of the capital, Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz, adding that it follows an old edict issued by the supreme council of Saudi scholars. …

In case you were wondering, AFP adds that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is a 5,000-man religious police force maintained by Our Friends the Saudis to 'oversee … adherence to Wahabism — a strict version of Sunni Islam, which also forces women to cover from head to toe when in public, and bans them from driving.'