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Afghan clerics campaigning against “un-Islamic” TV shows

Jan 11, 2008 6:25 am By Robert Spencer

More TV jihad. “Afghan clerics want to clean up TV by banning soaps,” by Nick Meo in the Times (thanks to KC):

With suicide bombers in the capital, spiralling opium production and half the country prey to Taleban guerrillas, Afghanistan’s spiritual guardians have discovered a dangerous new peril: Indian soap operas.

In an echo of the strict religious laws of the Taleban era, the Islamic Council of Scholars won the backing this week of a powerful government minister in its campaign to get dozens of wildly popular Bombay dramas off Afghanistan’s television screens.

The Minister of Information and Culture has written to television executives to threaten prosecution if they show footage that offends morality. He is particularly concerned about Indian soaps.

His announcement came after dozens of clerics met President Karzai a week ago to demand a ban on shows that they claim are “spreading immorality and un-Islamic culture”. The dramas have won thousands of devotees in Afghanistan who enjoy the escapist world of the fictional Bombay rich. Anywhere else, the family dramas with wooden acting and creaking sets would be thought tame. They have, however, offended the country’s new moral enforcers, who fear that the soaps will fuel a craze of “stone worship”, or veneration of Hindu idols.

The enforcers are also urging the Government to take action to get a young generation of rappers and pop stars off air. The old men accuse the musicians of polluting the nation’s moral standards and they have chastised Afghans who watch television when they could go to the mosque.…

The campaign is also an illustration of the renewed grip Islamic fundamentalists have in Kabul six years after the Taleban’s fall from power….

Tolo TV, Afghanistan’s first commercial channel, shows three Indian dramas, The Story of Every House; The Trials of Life; and Because a Mother-in-Law Was Once a Daughter-in-Law Too. Some channels show as many as six daily. Clerics accuse the dramas of encouraging “stone-worship” even though Hindu images are pixellated and scenes of Hindu worship are cut.

The hardliners also oppose Tolo TV’s pop programmes – Hop, a local MTV-style show, and Afghan Star, a talent contest.

After meeting the President, an Islamic council spokesman said: “The unrestrained programmes on TV have angered and prompted the ulemas [scholars] to react. Hop … is spreading immoralities and hurts the sacred religion of Islam. Afghan Star encourages immorality … and is against Sharia.”…

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