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Saudi Arabia bans chess


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The most important mufti of Saudi Arabia banned chess by fatwa because, according to him, it is the same as gambling and can cause conflicts between players.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/chess-forbidden-in-islam-rules-saudi-arabia-grand-mufti
They also banned it because it can distract muslims from performing their 5 daily prayers.

Chess originated in the middle east and from there it came to the west. People in islamic countries play a lot of chess, so this move really surprised me. Although, chess used to be banned in Iran as well.
This whole thing reminds me of the scientific period of prosperity in the middle east before islam took over completely... This is tragic :T

Meanwhile, the Saudis still enjoy horse racing :V

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29 minutes ago, Saxon said:

He accuses chess of promoting 'hatred and enmity', which is why it is forbidden in Islam. 

The irony is excruciating. 

It's true. The irony really is excruciating in this case. A religion that has specific words to call non-muslim countries enemies is concerned about a simple game? Yeah, right...
And as I said, at the same time horse racing is huge in Saudi Arabia even though their religion prohibits gambling. It just makes no sense.

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29 minutes ago, 6tails said:

Thankfully, a fatwa is simply a proclamation of interpretation of the teachings of Islam, and not exactly a binding statement, as anyone familiar with the teachings of Islam may issue a fatwa.

Considering that islam is pretty much the law there and since this order came from the highest muff in the country this kind of is a complete ban.

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Dog racing is extremely popular in Saudi arabia

breeds like azawakh and saluki are brought out to the desert and set on a gazelle who runs away. The whole debacle is kept in a relatively straight track by like 50 driving SUVs full of gamblers watching their dogs (it's actually very fun to watch, there's plenty of videos on YouTube)

though I imagine this goes on under the radar because not only is it a form of gambling, but owning dogs for non working purposes is not allowed in their religion

though they could easily say this is done to test the dogs hunting abilities

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2 hours ago, Saxon said:

It's not an edict; your article said it was unlikely to be enforced. 

Whether it will be enforced or not, it will still have an impact on a lot of people.

1 hour ago, Saxon said:

It's debatable whether the Islamic State or North Korea is worse than Saudi Arabia, in my opinion. 

I wouldn't call it the absolute worst, but it might be somewhere in the top 5, at least as far as the recognition of human rights goes.

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8 hours ago, 6tails said:

That's ethnicist. It's actually white on black violence since white makes the first move.

Well, at least that's historically accurate...

 

North Korea is by far the worst country in the world. No other countries run Nazi-style concentration camps to this day, except for North Korea. Read this if you don't mind having nightmares tonight http://freekorea.us/camps/22-2/

 

But Saudi Arabia is possibly the future worst country in the world. It's an oil rich country, ruled with an iron fist by semi-secular monarchy, while the citizens are extremely religious. So to keep the peasant from revolting, the government uses that oil income to pay everyone a stipend (guaranteed income, like some people here support). As a result, jobs and skills are not critical to survival. And when combined with the extremely religious culture and peer pressure, that results in EVERONE going to the university to get a theology degree. Because if you go for something other than theology, you must hate god or something. And that's why that country is so fucking stupid! No one has any advanced skills, aside from what they learned in practice (merchants and hand crafts and such). So, once their oil runs out, it will be an entire country of 30 million people, who are completely dumb, while being totally convinced that they are righteous and better than everyone else. And when their entire economy completely collapses and they see how much worse off they are compared to everyone else in the world, they won't think "maybe we're doing something wrong..." Because religion never lets anyone think that they're wrong. And they'll get even angrier and more desperate at the rest of the world than even now.

Edited by Rassah
Griffin was supposed to be religion. Stupid swipe keyboard
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This makes little sense to me. Would they not have to ban many other games as well? Lots of games can cause enmity. Remember when Icheb defeated Tuvok in a game of Kal-toh in the Star Trek Voyager episode," End Game?" Much disappointment and ill feelings ensued.  What about Checkers, Kadis-kot, or Monopoly?  All the same, really.

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4 hours ago, Rassah said:

Well, chess is kinda racist

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not...

I knew a black guy who said that, because the white pieces always went first.
He had a very strong victim complex. Laws are designed to suppress blacks. Black people have always been suppressed and enslaved throughout the entire human history. Cake is racist, devil's food cake is brown. He was a nice guy but I use his attitude as an example of the victim complex that some urban blacks have where they see racism everywhere and then we get stupid shit like U of Missouri.

 

1 hour ago, Gamedog said:

 

U will neve stop men in dresses in the desert from doing what they want to do

 

 

 

I wonder how many fender benders those SUVs on the sidelines have. They're so busy watching the dogs run they slam into the vehicle in front of them.

 

1 hour ago, Rassah said:

So, once their oil runs out, it will be an entire country of 30 million people, who are completely dumb, while being totally convinced that they are righteous and better than everyone else. And when their entire economy completely collapses and they see how much worse off they are compared to everyone else in the world, they won't think "maybe we're doing something wrong..." Because Griffin never lets anyone think that they're wrong. And they'll get even angrier and more desperate at the rest of the world than even now.

This will probably happen in all the middle eastern countries. They run out of oil, which is the only export that keeps their economy afloat (and keeps the royals rich), and the countries become the next chaotic terrorist states, kinda like Yemen or Afghanistan.

 

Edited by Crazy Lee
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5 hours ago, Saxon said:

It's debatable whether the Islamic State or North Korea is worse than Saudi Arabia, in my opinion. 

You can leave Saudi Arabia without having to potentially run across literal minefields, and being forced to face the prospect of having your entire family being thrown in horrific labor camps for the rest of their lives because of your freedom.

Also Saudi Arabia has actual food you can actually eat.

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1 hour ago, PastryOfApathy said:

You can leave Saudi Arabia without having to potentially run across literal minefields, and being forced to face the prospect of having your entire family being thrown in horrific labor camps for the rest of their lives because of your freedom.

Also Saudi Arabia has actual food you can actually eat.

both are probably chess free and therefore should be glassed

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4 hours ago, Crazy Lee said:

This will probably happen in all the middle eastern countries. They run out of oil, which is the only export that keeps their economy afloat (and keeps the royals rich), and the countries become the next chaotic terrorist states, kinda like Yemen or Afghanistan.

A bunch of those countries don't have oil. So they're ok, cause they actually do the business and economy thing (e.g. Dubai)

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3 hours ago, Rassah said:

A bunch of those countries don't have oil. So they're ok, cause they actually do the business and economy thing (e.g. Dubai)

You sure about that? The UAE are filthy rich, building all sorts of shiny new buildings and stuff. I've even heard they give out $1000 a month to all their citizens, which explains why they have to bring in immigrants from poor countries in Asia and Pacifica to do all their manual labor. I figured they had all that money from oil. If not, where?

Edit: According to wikipedia, 7th largest oil reserve in the world, with the 3rd largest oil field in the middle east.

Edited by Crazy Lee
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11 hours ago, Crazy Lee said:

This will probably happen in all the middle eastern countries. They run out of oil, which is the only export that keeps their economy afloat (and keeps the royals rich), and the countries become the next chaotic terrorist states, kinda like Yemen or Afghanistan.

Don't worry, if they start causing too much trouble we shall meet their swordsmen on the battlefield of honor with our Coldstream Guards! Or whatever modern chicanery we use nowadays :V

(Loss of oil production would be a devastating blow though)

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Saudi Arabia is trying to kill of the USA's fracking industry with it's continued use of Low Oil. It assumed that Oil would float around $45 - $50 for a few years and that would destroy the USA's economic ability to get cheap oil. Unfortunately Russia called their bluff and swore that Russian Oil would cost less than $50 until 2019 - 2020... Iran is now sanction free and its oil is on the way to EU countries, and oil is now less than $30 a barrel. The Saudi economy is crumbling around them as they depend purely on the oil for 90% of their economy. They're fucked.

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8 hours ago, Taikugemu said:

Who needs chess when you can decapitate infidels?

because some days your blood is pumpin and u wanna go wild and decapitate a non-believer

other days u wanna sit back with your buds, smoke some shisha, and play a nice game of chess

in any time, in any place, the deeds of men remain the same

Edited by Pignog
adding anime quote
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11 hours ago, Crazy Lee said:

You sure about that? The UAE are filthy rich, building all sorts of shiny new buildings and stuff. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Dubai

"Although Dubai's economy was initially built on revenues from the oil industry, revenue from petroleum andnatural gas currently account for less than 2% of the emirate's gross domestic product."

Dubai is filthy rich because it went the smart "brains and trade" route, instead of relying on their oil.

 

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Chess sucks anyway.

Tetris is a real mans game. In the end, you're only playing yourself; there's no enemy. Death is inevitable; there's no "right" way to stop it. It comes at you randomly, chess has predefined ways to win against specific board layouts (chess is to understanding strategy, as date memorization is to understanding history). In Tetris there's no end game but death, the mark you leave on that scoreboard, and the mark the game made on you. 

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16 hours ago, Revates said:

Saudi Arabia ruins all the fun. :( I guess that's another reason not to visit.

Dont worry, I used to live there. You are missing nothing but being witness to an aristocracy that terrorizes with secret police, insane entitled weatlhy people who drive their luxury cars without a though of safety for others, brutal corporal punishments on imported foreigner labor(basically slaves), and a culture repressed in every way you are free. And desert, devoid of plantlife. When they run out of oil, theyre all gonna die or descend into anarchy. Serves em right, nothing of value will be lost except their stupid black Allah moon rock.

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