Saudi Arabia, which used to strictly ban non-Muslim holidays, allows Christmas celebrations
Saudi Arabia, which hosts Islam’s two holiest mosques, is a seemingly changed country under Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s cultural revolution, allowing various events to take place from fashion shows to film festivals across the kingdom.
Most recently, Christmas trees, some of which were priced at around 3,000 dollars, have surprised many Saudi citizens around the kingdom as Riyadh shows how tolerant it has been toward non-Muslim religious festivities. The kingdom started easing restrictions on Christmas celebrations last year. Christmas has long been a controversial issue across the Islamic world as more conservative Muslims see it as part of the West's cultural colonialism.
In the past, Riyadh banned all non-Islamic celebrations in public as the country’s official Wahhabi religious ideology regards it as a form of blasphemy. But under MBS, that understanding has been replaced with a more liberal understanding of non-Muslim holidays. “Now, Christmas cheer is creeping into Saudi Arabia as social restrictions ease under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who wants Saudis to have some fun and spend more money at home and needs foreigners to enjoy living here enough to stay and help build new industries unrelated to oil,"
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