Taliban's sense of humour fails TV test

[Rose Siding]

Television stations in two Arab states have abandoned plans to broadcast a soap opera set in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, after an internet threat to "strike" against the actors and executives involved.

The heavily publicised series, The Road to Kabul, (al-Tareeq ila Kabul) was to be aired during Ramadan, which began on Friday. It depicts the relationship between a young Afghan woman and an Arab man, who meet while she is studying in England, and then go to live in Kabul.

But, on Thursday night, a threat appeared on a website from an unknown group calling itself the Mujahedin Brigades of Iraq and Syria, saying: "We swear to the great God that if we see in the series anything other than the honourable reality of the Taliban ... we will assault all those who participated in this sullied malice.

"We will strike, God willing, the centres of satellite stations, their correspondents ... and we swear that nobody will slip from our hands - if not today, then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then in a month, or a year."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=573210

[bemildred]

1. Fundies have no sense of humor. It's like a requirement.

You don't get your Fundy Union card if you can take a joke..

[bleedingheart]

2. so true..

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. so change it to a sitcom, and let the Tban write the script. duh.

[frylock]

7. tonight on kabul family ties..

After Asma explains to her father, Daoud, that she plans on marrying Ajmal, a Northern Alliance Warlord's son, Daoud decides to gut the fiance. Watch the hilarity ensue as young Asma must explain to Ajmal's family why he won't be home for Ramadan!

[MatrixEscape]

4. It is striking how

similar their fundies sound, compared to ours. Is there a training manual?

Say NO to the American Taliban.

[chookie]

8. Gotta love the irony

The flying monkeys tell us how we need to leave America because we are not happy here (they know because we complain when the government is criminal or abusive) -- but think of how darned happy they would be in Taliban Afghanistan -- guns everywhere, major decisions made by means of violence, public beheadings of wrong-doers, women as second-class citizens, and enthusiastic religious participation strictly enforced. If both sides had just been honest, they would have found much common ground.

A few years ago, "internets" wags posted stuff like, "Who made the following statement -- Mullah Omar, Jerry Falwell, or George Bush?" and by golly, it was hard to tell. I hypothesized at the time that they all had the same advisors and speech writers!

Another loveable irony: Mullah Omar publically denounced Bill Clinton as being immoral during blowjob crisis. See? So many example of common ground that it is surprising that the sides do not ally themselves.

They all seem to be allied in a crusade to bring about The End Times. More common ground.

[daleo]

5. Believe this latter part, or not.

"Television stations in Qatar and Jordan were adamant that the reasons for pulling Road to Kabul, which cost £2.4m to make, were purely technical.

Talal Adnan al-Awamleh, the owner of Arab Audio-Visual Centre, which was involved in producing the series said: "The Qataris have issued a statement to all the stations that bought it, asking them to suspend broadcast on unspecified technical and information grounds". An official from Qatar's state television said: "The decision to suspend the programming has nothing to do with these threats. The decision was made two days before the threats were even posted because has only received eight of the series' 30 episodes.""

[frylock]

6. didn't bob and bing already do the road to kabul?

:shrug:

[chookie]

9. I wonder who's writing and producing it

Bush seems to feel that people everywhere, not only in America, can be brainwashed by propaganda, and can be made to reject the evidence of their own eyes and daily experience. Indeed, he has brought to his cause some major market research experts and advertising wizards, and thinks it will make up for a corrupt agenda and a imperialist occupation.

Let me get this straight -- it's OKAY to broadcast liberal values in Afghanistan, but not in, say, Ohio.

No doubt this soap opera was to have a message -- how Arabs and Afghans are seen to be happy uniting in freedom. Will the show include a wacky but loveable American soldier?

[JolietDem]

10. hmmmm....

I wonder if Sinclair Broadcasting wants something peppy for sweeps week...

[newyawker99]

11. Hi JolietDem!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: