Filed in Reuters’ “Oddly Enough” section with a cute pun for its headline, a story of nightmarish religious totalitarianism: Saudi Morality Police See Red Over Valentine Roses. (Hat tip: Norwegian kafir.)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s morality police are on the scent of illicit red roses as part of a clampdown on would-be St Valentine’s lovers in the strict Muslim kingdom.

The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Saudi Arabia’s powerful religious vigilantes, have banned shops from selling any red flowers in the run-up to February 14.

Florists say the move is part of an annual campaign by the committee — whose members are known as “mutawwaeen” or volunteers — to prevent Saudis marking a festival they believe flouts their austere doctrine of “Wahhabi” Islam.

“They pass by two or three times a day to check we don’t have any red flowers,” said a Pakistani florist in Riyadh’s smart Sulaimaniya district. “Look, no red. I’ve taken them all out,” he said pointing to a dazzling floral collection covering every color of the rainbow except one.

Saudi Arabia’s purist version of Islam recognizes only two religious occasions a year — the Muslim feasts after the fasting month of Ramadan and the Haj pilgrimage.

Celebration of the Islamic New Year or the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, common in other Muslim countries, is frowned upon in Saudi Arabia.

Valentine’s Day, or the “Feast of Love” in Arabic, is beyond the pale in a country where women must cover themselves from head to toe in public and be accompanied by a male guardian.

Those wacky Saudis!