• Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      This has nothing to do with criticizing rules against gambling. Nobody is making a fuss about that.
      Chess achieved popularity first in Persia and spread quickly to the Arab world in the 15th century. So chess started in the Muslim world, and Afghanistan was probably one of the first places it spread to, since Afghanistan was closely related to Persia. Making it pretty insane for the Afghan government to ban it after more than 500 years?!?!

      They might as well ban coins, because they can be a source for gambling!

      • Zenith@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        You can bet on who wins and loses, but wouldn’t just banning doing that, placing bets, make more sense than banning chess? wtf is there left to do for fun in that part of the world?

        • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Fun is haram because it takes you away from spiritual pursuits. I’m no expert on the theology of Afghan radicals, but having grown up amongst Christian fundamentalists, I presume the thinking is roughly equivalent.

          • futatorius@lemm.ee
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            5 hours ago

            That’s pretty close. Just like the fundies, the Taliban are joyless, illiterate degenerates who are troubled by the thought that somewhere, someone might be finding some pleasure in life.

          • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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            1 day ago

            Banning stuff people actually want to do (or even better, have a deep instinctual desire to do like physical intimacy or sex) is what makes the whole “you are all sinners and we have the solution to sell to you” (or alternatively “you are all sinners and you have to do what we say to solve that”) part of the religion scam work.