IMO..

Fear is more universal than Jesus, as far as the US goes. So while the policies will be at least as restricting, they won't be a face-value religious standard. (Assuming they got/continue to get their way.)

"Video games are bird fighting simulators! And bird flying simulators!"

I'm sure thats what Afghan JT would say. ;)

@Oz: Wow that was probably the most ignorant thing ive seen outside of the newest GTA controversy

On the subject at hand i just find it rather ironic, we cant stop them so really where are we in the world now especially if we are defending them if this law passes. Are we then supporting the extremist groups who we say were responsible for the attacks that brought us to this place to begin with? As far as i see it now this law passes we have gone full circle with many dead and wounded to see a nice little circle jerk of pro democracy voices getting silenced quickly to only see the vocal minority pass the laws the way it used to be. The only change is how they were put into power, an elected legislature can trample rights as easily as a king or a dictator, democracy seems to not be as shiny as it used to be.

As it is the peoples elected representatives if they wish it changed they need to speak up or let the life slip back to the way it was and for certain groups in society nothing has changed. Women are still regarded poorly and looked down upon and homosexuality is still an offense more heinous than many felonies in the US.

Support Freedom i think not, we support Tyranny as we have since this whole clusterf**k started.

boy it's a good thing we bombed them into freedom...

Freedom means being allowed to do stupid shit.

...and the freedom to ignore stupid shit like this.

If they don't get to play video games, where will they beable to simulate their murders in order for the military to train and recruit the country's youth?!

Banning videogames is one of the least worrisome aspects of this bill from what I can see. Banning women from wearing makeup and forcing them to wear the hijab in public? Banning dancing at public events and on television? Demanding separate halls for men and women at wedding parties, and presumably other similar occasions? Banning men from wearing "feminist" styles including bracelets and necklaces?

Does this not sound familiar to anyone?

Should just the nuke the entire Middle East and be done with it.

.....

What?
No seriously, WHAT???!!!

Im not serious!

"The proposals also demand an end to dog and bird-fighting, pigeon-flying, billiards and video games, all past times favoured by many Afghans"

Is it just me, or has gaming there been grouped up with other pastimes that may involve gambling?

No worries about gaming being a called murder simulator over there - their factions have been shooting each other even before Tv was invented. Or bolt-actions rifles for that matter.

That guy looks like Cecil Anderson from Mr. Deeds (the 2002 remake).

Oh, right, the video game ban. Yeah, dumb.

Words fail me... video games really are the least of this issue. What can you do though? I just hope democracy takes better hold in Afghanistan, that way once the Afghan people are fed up with stupid and oppressive laws they can vote to change them.

Gift.

As backwards as this sounds, NEVER FORGET that this is percisely the kind of legislation we would see if christian zealots gain more political power in the US.

The extremists in the middle east = American christian fundamentalists.

The difference is, if the Christian fundamentalists try to pass that kind of legislation here, everyone else would raise hell about it. But in Afganistan, raising hell might get you shot or arrested.

This is yet another arguement for why we shouldn't have invaded Iraq. We were obviously not done in Afganistan. I mean, seriously? Before the Taliban, Afganistan was on the fast track to becoming quite the modern country. Women even wore western clothing and attended Universities. Then boom, Islamic extremism turned the country into a shithole. We go in and oust the extremists... only for them to elect more extremists? What are they, masochists?

"They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that."

@Wag

He said "Christian Zealots" , I think that pretty much implies extremist Christianity. And yes, if those sort ever did come to power, than yes, many of the rights and fun that we take for granted now WOULD be taken away.

He never said all Christians = EVIL.

I think you jumped the gun there, Wag. He was talking about the fundamentalists, not all Christians as a whole.

In general, I don't think the "fundamentalists" will ever gain much power here. Voters like putting Christians in office, but usually only ones that are tempered with moderate tendancies. Extremism doesn't sell very well in politics, at least not in the US. Oh sure, we love to listen to extreme leftists and rightists on the radio, but we (most of us) don't want them to have any real power.

@Wag

"Any level headed Christian will tell you to love the sinner and hate the sin."

How fortunate that you have such Politicians.

@ everyone

My main intent when I bring this up is to point out that religious extremists in the mid-east aren't any different from the ones we have in the west.

Its easy to sit and laugh at how "backwards", "barbaric", and "archaic" the muslim world is. We really aren't so different from these "backwards" people as a society. The only difference is that the zealots have more power in those nations.

I still contend that the zealots in the USA must be treated as a serious threat.

Such progressive people.

Truthers, AKA the people who believe Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda weren't behind 9-11 and that the U.S. GOVT was.

I fear that extreemism of any kind is unhealty and that the world keeps getting pushed further and further to the estreme whatever direction that may be. Just take a look at how polorizing politics are in this country.

@ Zerodash, I'm sorry if I jumped the gun on you, but you haven't always been as level headed in your comments that clearly show your dislike of christianity.

@That_1_Guy

Silly how the Bible says to hate the sinner and hate the sin. But I guess that’s the modern Christian’s interpetation of the Bible.

Please point out the line in the Bible where it says hate the SINNER. Please. It would enlighten a lot of Christians who frequent this blog. I am familiar with the passage that says hate the sin but nowhere have I seen the other part. If you're going to quote something please reference where it is.

It is statements like yours, good sir, that give people who AREN'T Christians a bad name. It's easy enough to say a certain group of people is this or that. It's something else entirely to realize AND accept that that is a minority. I suppose that would simply be common sense though right?

Um, maybe ignore my previous comment. Reading the full article before commenting = win.

THis has nothing to do with vidja games, It has everything to do with keeping power. Censoring media is how a lot of people kept power, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Chairman Moa.

@ Dark

Jimmy Fallien, Pat Robertson both set up multimillion dollar churches/business that supported extreme right wing christian senetors, they may not have DIRECT power indirect is sometimes just as powerful. And if it was true that they have no power why did Venezuala get pissy for Pat Robertsons comments? If he was just a no body they wouldn't have said anything. Thruth be told we aren't TRUELY protected by the constitution.

@ Rhade

Nah to well spoken and not frothing at the mouth to be a thruther.

@ Zerodash

I see the point of a few people assuming you hate christianity in general, a lot of the comments do point a generalization out.

@Dark

Venezuala gets pissed at everything. Chavez is a nutcase, you should be familiar with this by now. Robertson's not a nobody, but his influence is limited. And yes, they are. The first amendment protects religious freedom as well as the freedom to express opinion. You do not get to choose who has or doesn't have their speech protected. It's everybody or your a hypocrite, no matter who gets offended.

@Zerodash:
I understand your point very well. If the government actually listens to christain extremeists (Which I have heard that they are listening to some of them), then we might actaully be in trouble.

"But what is coming of it, besides laws that get shot down? "

Do you share that same attitude towards anti-gaming legislation?

/devil's advocate

@Rhade

I think that's his point. The anti-gaming laws keep getting shot down. Nothing has come out of them except wasted tax dollars.

@ Dark Sovereign

I was just douching around... but now I'm too tired to even bother salvaging anything that might be construed as a slightly valid argument, if only by accident.

Off topic:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/wii_video_games_blamed_for_rise_in

@ Dark

Is that the Effeminate crime article? Can't view it from the office.

@ GRIZZAM 512

The Greek ban ended in 2003-ish. The law was adjusted to only affect public places like arcades and internet cafes.

Well, that sucks. Another country without games.

If the people of afghanistan actually support this then who are we to tell another society what they can or can't do based on their religious convictions & moral beliefs?

If it's a minority of people (ala the Taliban) who are using force to control the people and support things like this, well that's where I take issue with it.

Otherwise they are just doing what they believe to be best, and as long as a gun isn't being pointed at their head, their family being threatened, they will always have the ability to change their minds in the future.

Radical Islamic censorship strikes again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I feel really bad for these people,glad I live in the States.

So taliban is still in power?

What...oh they arent?

Well you cant blame me for being mistaken can you...

Well, look at the bright side, with no videogames, they won't have any violence, since videogames cause violence. So if they ban videogames in the whole middle east, then the centuries old wars will be over! Yay!

Wait... I don't think that even Grand Theft Auto II was out when the holy wars were started... oh well, we can just blame it on Custer's Revenge or something. It's not like anyone will fact check it.

@Ace

Not religion. Pakistani Islam.

@Gift

"I just hope democracy takes better hold in Afghanistan, that way once the Afghan people are fed up with stupid and oppressive laws they can vote to change them."

But this is the result of democracy. When you give a majority or plurality power via the ballot box (in this case, Islamists), they tend to use it against the minority..

@Zerodash

"As backwards as this sounds, NEVER FORGET that this is percisely the kind of legislation we would see if christian zealots gain more political power in the US."

Except for the fact that almost 19 out of every 20 legislators supporting anti-game laws in this country are secular (so-called) liberals..

@ New Spectrum

Really Mrs. Bhutto supported extremism? Really, being pro west, and being exiled from her own country when radicle clerics damned she leave or face death? Wow never knew

Yep. The desert heat makes you do crazy shit. Crazy, stupid, tyrannical, undemocratic, religiously zealos shit.

In before Afghanistan's government appears exactly as it did under Taliban rule, but with different dudes in charge.

This is definately FARK-worthy!
Submitting it now...

the middle east has been in conflict for a long time. the earliest cultures originated there, then theres the mongol invasion, the crusades, and later the establisment of israel, which pissed off the Palestinians. if three different religions originate in the same place, there is a general lack of natural resorses in that place, and the three groups hate each other, youve got a problem. pouring a vat of oil into an already polluted lake doesn't make it cleaner. so the us invasion of afganistan was a complete waste of resourses launched on unconfirmed assumptions ( im not pointing any fingers). so tearing down a bad system and settining up one almost as corrupt does nothing. so what i think we sahould of done is we should of hired assassins to completely destroyed the taliban from the inside out ( after we get conclusivve evidence on their crimes) then post guards there for a while like we did in the south after the civil war to keep things calm. no big invasion, no exteme casualties. course it would anger certain people, but no loss of innocent blood.

I hope that the people of Afghanistan are given the right to express any problems they have with this ban.

Ahmad:So, yeah...not diggin' this whole ban thing.
Abdul al-Rahman:Okay, let me load my gun...

As much as we would like to say ban things, Nuke the living crap out of them, calling Christian fundamentalists the extremists here in America, we have to realize that we cant stop this country. Their laws are entirely different from ours and we really must try to step back and think before we say ignorant crap such as "Nuke the entire middle east," "Nuke them into freedom."

@Illspirit I appreciate what you mean by a plurality, and I've a suspicion that's exactly what has happened here. (As far as I can tell Afghanistan's parliament is elected by proportional representation, which tends to give undue influence to small factions.) All the same, I'm very surprised to hear weddings as gatherings coming under fire.

The way I understand it Afghans are very traditional people and have very specific wedding rituals that this law would curtail severely. I'm amazed by any government, even a coalition formed by necessity, suggesting such unpopular legislation. Evidently, their elected representatives feel a little to secure in their positions... or else they are worryingly out of touch with the people they claim to represent. Either way, I'll be very interested to see what happens if this bill becomes law.

Gift.

As far as I know, aren't at least bird and dogfighting not allowed in every western country as well? I know they are illegal or against the law here in Denmark. And i bet that bird fighting refers ro cock or rooster fighting, something many Afghan and Pakistani people enjoy a lot.

Pigeon-flying I don't get why it should be made illegal and why ban videogames or billiards. Or maybe they want to ban pigeon-flying and billiards because you van bet on the outcome of these things? And this is against some (strict) Islamic code?

I still don't gewt why videogames should be banned, though. Even games for kids like most games on the Nintendo DS or the Wii. Some very violent games maybe, I can understand why they want to ban them, but not every videogame ever made. (note that I don't beleive any games should be banned, I'm just saying that I sort of understand why they want to ban say Manhun 2) I mean why don't they just ban radio&tv at the same time?

At least they have banned flying kites or chess yet - as the Talibans did. But eventually they might get around to it. (I hope not, though).

Please alos note that officially Afghanistan is not a theocracy like Iran or Saudi-Arabia. It is a democracy (of sorts). Laws must be passed by a majority in both Houses and signed by the President to become the law of the land. That way, of these bills do get a majority vote, it is the will of the Afghan people that shines through, as they have chosen their represen-tatives in a (somewhat) free & fair election. And if they want to make it so in their own backyard, I don't think we in the West really can complain.
They have their freedom to do what they want in their own backyard or home - exactly as we do.

Because government bans always stop people completely and forever. Remember back in the 1920s when Prohibition got passed? And no one in America ever drank alcohol again.

@Karsten

Animal fighting is illegal in the states as well, it still happens and animal protection agencies try to stop it.

Yeah, what the fuck is pigeon flying? If it's just pigeons flying, why should it be banned?

They are trying to control all communication and entertainment it seems. Pigeons are very useful communication tools when electricity is not available or when secrecy is top priority. Its a very old method of communication.

This is an unfortunate event for humanity and the ideals of freedom.

arent suicide bomber simulators classed as video games?????

[...] Link [...]

ANNNNNND another reason the Taliban are terrorists.

Sing along...

"I dont want to follow no child molestor, sex offendor, prophet pretender,
ain't going to follow no child molestor, Islam's not for me"

I say we nuke 'em.

Not nuke 'em so they'll be free, but nuke 'em so the rest of the world would be a much better place.

And I'm NOT joking.

That is great you know sarcastically that is, because earlier Taliban had banned all sports like football and after the Taliban was thrown over people thought they had a life now no gaming that means another kind of dictatorship. I play pool on my video game for hours together. This is a complete violation of human right i'd say.