The Saudi Religious, Educational and Social Thinkers (SREST), an organisation of Saudi scholars, education specialists and researchers with almost ten thousand Saudi clerics as members, has warned Pakistanis not to use products with religious names and has demanded the Pakistani government ban all such products.
| So snap it up, Pak government, for the good of your souls! |
A SREST delegation, led by Pakistani-born Saudi scholar Dr Abdullah Ahmed, made the demand on Sunday during a news conference after expressing his astonishment at seeing so many products with religious names in Pakistan.
| You can tell he's holier than everyone else. He sees sin where nobody noticed before... |
Flanked by SREST colleagues Dr Abu Usama, Syed Abdulah Madni and Bint-e-Maryam, he said that they visited several universities, schools, collages, seminaries, religious and government institutions and met with clerics and social scholars. âThe heartbreaking thing we learned in Pakistan was that Pakistani markets and shops are causing a major sin unknowingly by spreading products with religious names,â said Mr Ahmed.
| "My heart is just broken! Sin! Ugly and foul! And nobody even noticed! Good thing I got here when I did!" |
âAlthough some people tried to introduce similar products in Saudi Arabia, the media there has been campaigning against this emerging trend of using sacred names for commercial purposes,â Dr Ahmed informed. He said that the government in Saudi Arabia did not allow the production of some colas branded by sacred names such as those that have occupied a lot of shop space in Pakistan.
| So much for Mecca Cola, and Prophet's Beard shampoo... |
Asked why Saudi opinion leaders have opposed these products and brands, he said they believe manufacturers have been using these sacred names to gain financial benefits and market share by using Muslim sentiments in the global anti-terrorism environment. âIt is really very regrettable...I have never seen even a single product named after any Christian holy city or Jesus in Europe and America,â the scholar added.
| Come to think of it, neither have I. There's probably a reason for that. Somehow I can't see a real market for Our Lord and Savior TV dinners, not precisely because it would be sacriligeous, but maybe because it would be... ummm... silly. |
âJust look at the names of some newly-launched colas. I think itâs very unfair to associate these beverages with religious names. If I take bottles of such colas home, use them and throw them away, how would you feel after seeing the bottle bearing a religious name in the trash? I think this is very unfair,â he said. âThese actions will not serve any cause of Islam,â he added.
| There goes my idea for marketing Holy Koran Kola... |
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