Highest Ratings in Kabul?
Afghan clerics want to clean up TV by banning soaps - Times Online
New television stations have proliferated in the past three years, offering a mix of hard-hitting news, which is often critical of the Government, and light entertainment shows, which draw the wrath of religious hardliners.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.”
Taboos are funny things - in Japan they pixellate genitals but allow the worst kind of porn - but in Afghanistan they pixellate images of Hindu Gods ..
Tags: hinduism, islam, afghanistan, intolerance, censorship, god porn