text: Celebrating the birthday of the noble Prophet (pbuh) in Saudi Arabia is forbidden.
  The Bani Saud denounce it as ‘bid‘ah’ (innovation in deen) but there is no bar to celebrating Halloween, the pagan festival that has to do with ghosts and spirits.
  This year, the Najdi Bedouins opened a Halloween costumes shop in Riyadh.
  What was on display that the ill-mannered Saudis flocked to?
  The shop included creepy masks that would give one the shudders.
  Most members of the Bani Saud clan do not need masks to look creepy.
  There were also promiscuous women’s costumes in a land where until recently, all women were required to be covered head to toe.
  There were also witches’ outfits.
  Now that is what you would call the de facto ruler, Mohammad bin Salman’s (MbS) attempts at modernization: witches’ costumes.
  No doubt, MbS believes in witches and ghosts returning from the grave on Halloween night as well as pumpkins and spooky lights.
  Lest some readers think we are making this up, it was reported in The National.
  Let us understand the origins of Halloween.
  The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain some 2,000 years ago.
  The Celts lived 2,000 years ago mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France.
  They celebrated their new year on November 1.
  This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.
  Given the time period—2,000 years ago—and the widespread poverty and superstition, the Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.
  On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
  People would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.
  In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints.
  Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain.
  The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween.
  Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.
  By starting Halloween celebrations, the Bani Saud have adopted a pagan festival whose roots go back to the belief that ghosts of the dead come back to earth on this night.
  Together with music and dance festivals that started in the port city of Jeddah last month and will go on till March 2022, the Arabian Peninsula under Bani Saud control has gone back to the dark days of Jahiliyyah.
  MbS may call it modernity; we call it primitive savagery.
  The Bani Saud must be immediately divested of all control of Makkah and al-Madinah, the two holiest sites of Islam.
  At the rate the Bani Saud are introducing their vulgar policies, it cannot be ruled out if they would bring back idols in the Ka‘aba (God forbid).
  After all, they have preserved their ancient city, Dariyy‘ah, from where they first erupted in the mid-eighteenth century.
  They would declare idols in the Ka‘aba as part of their ancient history too by claiming that they are descendants of the Makkan mushriks.
  The choice for Muslims is clear: would they like to see these Bedouins from Najd that openly indulge in paganism in control of the Haramain (Makkah and al-Madinah) or banish them from these holy places?