January 06, 2008	Sunday	Zilhaj 26, 1428

KABUL, Jan 5: Afghanistan’s Islamic clerics have called on President Hamid Karzai to clamp down on a burgeoning television industry which it accused of spreading “immorality and un-slamic culture.”

The call was made during a meeting between Karzai and dozens of clerics from an influential religious council in Kabul on Friday, an official in Karzai’s office told AFP under condition of anonymity on Saturday.

“The unrestrained programmes on television has angered and prompted the Ulema (scholars) to react,” the conservative council comprising religious clerics said in a statement to Karzai, a copy of which was provided to newsmen.

“Hop... is spreading immoralities and hurts the sacred religion of Islam,” the statement said, referring to an MTV-style music show on Tolo TV, one of the biggest among several private stations launched after the fall of the Taliban regime.

“Afghan Star... encourages immorality among the people and is against Sharia (law),” the statement said referring to an American-Idol-type show on Tolo.

Over a dozen privately run television stations have sprung up following the fall of the Taliban, who banned TV as un-Islamic during their strict 1996-2001 rule before they were toppled in a US-led invasion.

“These TVs (stations) are spreading immorality and un-Islamic culture,” the statement said.

Hamid Karzai ordered his information minister which handles broadcasting to “look into the concerns of the Ulema,” government-owned newspapers said, citing Karzai’s office.

—AFP