Social Media + Weather: Snowmen Banned in Saudi Arabia?

Were snowmen just banned in Saudi Arabia? That's what the headlines today will tell you, but let's look beyond the headlines to the real story. This is interesting to me both from a meteorological and Social Media perspective, because two things conspired to create this controversy: Social Media and a rare weather event.

The Washington Post headline is a little misleading; if you read their article, this was already baked into the Islamic religion. That doesn't make it any less stunning to Westerners, however.

Two things happened to lead to this moment:

1.) It snowed enough last weekend to make snowmen in the Saudi Arabia desert.*
2.) After seeing photos of snowmen on Social Media, the cleric reminded followers of the rule.

*Weather records are hard to come by in Saudi Arabia, but my guess is that this much snow hasn't fallen since the Social Media era.

UPDATE: After complaints about his posture on the topic, he clarified that kids can still make snowmen, and adults can make "headless/faceless snowmen" for the same reason they can make scarecrows.