Last week we were flying on Saudia, the airline of Saudi Arabia, between Jeddah and Riyadh, among other locations.
Each time we taxied before takeoff, they played a video of a prayer of Mohammed for travelers, which was pretty cool. The plane had a large prayer room at the back, with a digital map showing the direction of Mecca wherever we were flying.
We watched an episode of Last Man Standing and noticed that every so often, the audio (in English) dropped out.
They were censoring certain words.
I made a partial list:
church
pig
Christmas
Dear God
For the love of God
_____
On one level, it is understandable why the Saudi government would censor these words. The terms would be offensive to some Muslims. But the censorship portrays a false narrative.
The characters in Last Man Standing actually say the forbidden words because they are not Muslim. They are Christians living in the United States. Viewers of the censored version of the show see an inaccurate version of the reality of the characters.
Just like readers of the book Saints get an inaccurate version of the reality of early members of the Church. I discuss this in a new post here:
https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/12/selective-standards-toward-historical.html
_____
Years ago, I had to submit films I made to the Saudi censors before they could be displayed within the country. Sometimes I had to make edits to satisfy the censors. I didn't mind doing so, but I wonder how effective such censorship is in today's world.
On one hand, the Internet makes information available everywhere (except in countries that still censor the Internet).
On the other hand, most people don't make more than superficial inquiries. They go to sources they trust, and accept them. If those sources engage in censorship, that censorship will be successful.
The M2C citation cartel knows this, which is why they continue to engage in censorship.
Especially Book of MormonCentral Censor.
Each time we taxied before takeoff, they played a video of a prayer of Mohammed for travelers, which was pretty cool. The plane had a large prayer room at the back, with a digital map showing the direction of Mecca wherever we were flying.
 |
| Last Man Standing, with Arabic subtitles |
They were censoring certain words.
I made a partial list:
church
pig
Christmas
Dear God
For the love of God
_____
On one level, it is understandable why the Saudi government would censor these words. The terms would be offensive to some Muslims. But the censorship portrays a false narrative.
The characters in Last Man Standing actually say the forbidden words because they are not Muslim. They are Christians living in the United States. Viewers of the censored version of the show see an inaccurate version of the reality of the characters.
Just like readers of the book Saints get an inaccurate version of the reality of early members of the Church. I discuss this in a new post here:
https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/12/selective-standards-toward-historical.html
_____
Years ago, I had to submit films I made to the Saudi censors before they could be displayed within the country. Sometimes I had to make edits to satisfy the censors. I didn't mind doing so, but I wonder how effective such censorship is in today's world.
On one hand, the Internet makes information available everywhere (except in countries that still censor the Internet).
On the other hand, most people don't make more than superficial inquiries. They go to sources they trust, and accept them. If those sources engage in censorship, that censorship will be successful.
The M2C citation cartel knows this, which is why they continue to engage in censorship.
Especially Book of Mormon
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