In a television appearance that was posted online and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute(MEMRI), the sheik was told by someone off-camera that “taking pictures with cats has been spreading among people, who want to be like the Westerners.”

“What?!” he responded, incredulous. The other person had to repeat the claim half a dozen times, in a variety of ways — “They are taking pictures with them, Sheik” — before it sunk in.

“The cats don’t matter here,” he said. “Taking pictures is prohibited if not for a necessity, not with cats, not with dogs, not with wolves, not with anything.”

Saudi Arabia’s strict brand of Islam certainly outlaws many practices that are common outside its borders, Washington Post reports.

But a total ban on photography is a fairly fringe view held by some hard-line clerics, who believe it violates tenets against depicting human or animal images.

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