A Salafi Saudi Arabian cleric has stirred up controversy by issuing a ruling prohibiting the building of snowmen.
"It is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun," a prominent Saudi Arabian cleric Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid wrote on a religious website, as quoted by Reuters.
Saudis eagerly building snowmen and even snow camels
Munajjid said that building snowman was the same as creating an image of a human being, which he says is considered a sin under the kingdom's interpretation of Islamic law.
The cleric’s ruling provoked rapid responses on social media, with people posting photos of snowmen they built.
For the third year in a row Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk province, near the Jordanian border, has been covered in snow.