Playing chess is more sinful than gambling: Muslim televangelist, by Daily News in Istanbul.
Turkish televangelist Ahmet Mahmut Ünlü … has raised eyebrows by claiming that playing chess is more sinful than gambling …
Ünlü said chess players were “cursed” and claimed that “most people who played chess are liars.”
“Playing chess is worse than gambling and eating pork … People who play chess are more prone to lying than others. People who play chess may not say the shahada [declaration of Islamic belief] while they are dying,” he said.
“People who play chess are cursed … You should count your prayer beads instead of playing games like this,” he added.
This influential, popular imam and Turkish Islamic TV preacher condemns chess and scientific space advancements, classing them with other things he considers sins, such as gambling and oral sex. It’s likely because intellectual pursuits will challenge his backward and supremacist ideology.
This is the same imam whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife visited two and a half years ago to get his blessing before the presidential elections.
Seventh century Arab culture is not smart and doesn’t tolerate smart. Should we should be importing it into the West?
hat-tip Stephen Neil
