Are non-Muslims allowed to build snowmen in Saudi Arabia and similar countries?

A fatwa is not a legal opinion, it is a religious opinion and it only sometimes has to do with the law.

This distinction is important if the country's legal system follows the Sharia, and typically in those cases, the rulings are done by a central committee (as in Saudi Arabia) and not just any goof with mouth.

In Saudi, there have been some insane "fatwas" that really no one takes seriously:

1. The one against women driving as it affects their ovaries.
2. The one claiming the Earth was flat (from Al-Ahram Weekly Issue 477, 13-19 April, 2000.)
3. The one against Mickey Mouse and Tom and Jerry (by the same Sheikh Muhammad Al-Munajid).

In strict Islam, it is forbidden to create images of life so pictures/sculptures of animals, humans and other living things are prohibited; that could be the reason behind this fatwa but in reality (20+ years living in Saudi) hardly anyone enforces these things.

So, for the traveler - it is not against the law; you might be given a few mean glances (even then, it will depend on where you are in Saudi) and that's about it.

I will give you general role about fatwas.

Anyone can give a Fatwa in Islam :)

The person who gives fatwa has to prove his fatwa with some kind of proof. Even given proof doesn't mean the fatwa needs to be followed.

That's why you can find strange fatwa from time to time.

Even Saudi's and Muslim in general laugh about some fatwas.

Fatwa almost means "opinion" for one person; so sometimes you will find a fatwa that says do this and another fatwa that says don't do it.

For example, take smoking, there is a fatwa saying it's forbidden and another that says it's up to the individual.

Most Muslim see this as a healthy thing. There is no Priesthood in Islam.

Most of the time well proven fatwa are followed and weak fatwa are ignored. That is one major different between Islam and Christianity. Muslims don't accept a whole person as a package because we believe the person can give some good opinions but not always. So we may accept some fatwas, but disregard others from the same person.

So, to answer the question: fatwa doesn't mean law, so it's not illegal to build snowmen in Saudi :)

And if there is a weak fatwa you will see another fatwa is replying to it and prove that it's wrong, and clarifying the other path.

There is only two things are fixed and constant in Islam 1."Quran" and 2."Prophet Muhammad" words and other thing like fatwa is not constant. so there is no one can force someone to change something from his mind in Islam, there is no Pope or Priesthood and no one can force the Muslim to do a specific thing. Muslim follow what they say it right from the different opinions, and they don't follow people by them self.

Also for the record not all the laws come from fatwa some laws are against some fatwa like insurance issue in Saudi Arabia, all fatwa's were against forcing insurance but the law force it anyway.