Afghan TV Networks Ordered Off Air ("10 Commandments" Upset Conservatives)

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Western pop videos, India's Bollywood movies and even Charlton Heston's "The Ten Commandments" have Afghanistan's fledgling cable TV stations in hot water.

An appeal from the country's top Islamic judge this week prompted the Cabinet to order television networks temporarily off the air -- just three years after a Taliban ban on TV was lifted.

The spat is the latest in the battle for control of Afghan society between still-influential religious conservatives and liberals and entrepreneurs enjoying new freedoms.

snip.......

A screening last week of the "The Ten Commandments" starring Charlton Heston provided ammunition for the conservatives.

"It showed the prophet Moses with short trousers and among the girls," Wahid Mujdah, a Supreme Court spokesman, said. "He's a very holy person and Islam respects him. This is wrong."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-afghan-tv-shutdown,0,115538.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

Is "Wahid Mujdah" the Afghani translation of Michael Powell? We are rapidly entering a new Dark Ages and need a group of secular Irish monks to keep alit the guttering flame of civilization.

silliness people still assume that a democratic nation actually removes the influence of religious conservatives instead of instilling them in all government offices.