A Saudi cleric has claimed taking photos with cats is forbidden, as it reflects Saudis “who want to be like Westerners”. Flip that front-facing camera round and put Jinx down, people.

Speaking on a television broadcast from April 17 that’s just been uploaded to Youtube, Sheikh Saleh Bin Fawzan Al-Fazwan was confronted about “a new trend of taking pictures with cats has been spreading among people who want to be like Westerners.”

The Saudi Council of Senior Scholars – who had to be asked a few times before he got what he was being asked – replied: “What?! What do you mean pictures with cats? Taking pictures is prohibited. The cats don’t matter here.” The. Cats. Don’t. Matter. Here.

He said taking pics with cats was forbidden unless an absolute “necessity”. He then went on to single out other animals too. “Not with cats, not with dogs, not with wolves, not with anything,” the sheikh replied.

The response was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute Monitoring Group. 

Saudi Arabia operates underneath Wahhabism, which is a super strict form of Islam. It specifically challenges anything classed as Western. Chess was banned in the country as it encouraged gambling, and Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh called it “a waste of time and money and a cause for hatred and enmity between players.” Pokemon has also been banned because of supposedly religious symbols on the cards.