# Top Religious Leader of Saudi Arabia bans Chess **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 22, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892 "2016-01-22T18:04:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/341 "2016-01-27T11:59:17Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > It’s clearly a sock, but whose sock is it? Unfortunately, for a board dedicated to fighting ignorance, it could be any number of people. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/342 "2016-01-27T12:21:06Z")
Wide sweeping generalizations make it very easy to identify a percieved enemy, for the thinking averse. It would be quite interesting to see other manifestations of this (lack of) thought process: “ALL cattle ranchers are government welfare sucking vampires, and ungrateful to boot!” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/343 "2016-01-27T13:39:16Z")
> [@booneyvince](#): > > Words…Babble…Words." Quite now, booneyvince; the adults in the room are speaking now. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/344 "2016-01-28T04:05:28Z")
All right, looks like the thread has simmered down and I won’t be interrupting with a comment about chess, from the [10 Craziest Events In The History Of Chess](http://listverse.com/2016/01/26/10-craziest-events-in-the-history-of-chess/) link cited above: > [@](#): > > an Ummayad caliph named Al-Walid killed his courtier by throwing the firzan (a queen) at his head. What prompted this little outburst? Well, he found out that his courtier was deliberately losing their chess games, and this didn’t sit well with Al-Walid. Muslims are known for their long memories. I am sure the Grand Mufti is aware of this bit of history, and is trying to ban chess in the interest of preventing a wave of violence from spreading across the Muslim world. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/345 "2016-01-28T05:44:44Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Muslims are known for their long memories. You really don’t see a problem with that statement? ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/346 "2016-01-28T06:48:14Z")
Does that seem stereotypical? I think Muslims record centuries of history. Test it yourself, you’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/347 "2016-01-28T06:53:40Z")
Well they certainly still seem to still hold a grudge over the crusades seeing as extremists keep mentioning them in their propaganda. It was 600 years ago and you guys won (no Christian crusader states survived). Let it go man. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/348 "2016-01-28T08:54:56Z")
The Greek Orthodox are still pissed off about the Sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. Not that I blame them. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/349 "2016-01-28T09:25:13Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > The Greek Orthodox are still pissed off about the Sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. Not that I blame them. Hey I’m still pissed off with Julius Caesar, Aurelian, Theodosius and 'Amr ibn al-'As for destroying the library of Alexandria. It was destroyed four times and we don’t know who did the most damage so I’m pissed at all of them! ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/350 "2016-01-28T11:56:13Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Muslims are known for their long memories. Christians too! If you can believe this, every Sunday they talk about shit that happened more than 2000 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/351 "2016-01-28T14:57:53Z")
All right, maybe that is just one of my own ideas. “Muslim memory” really wasn’t my point. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/352 "2016-01-28T15:30:49Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Quite now, booneyvince; the adults in the room are speaking now. Reported (though I also wish he’d shut the fuck up). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/353 "2016-01-28T16:30:03Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Quite now, booneyvince; the adults in the room are speaking now. [Moderating] **Stainless** , changing the text of someone else’s post inside a quote box is against the rules. Please avoid doing this in the future. No warning issued. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/354 "2016-01-28T19:28:16Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Moderating] > **Stainless** , changing the text of someone else’s post inside a quote box is against the rules. Please avoid doing this in the future. > > No warning issued. > [/Moderating] Apologies; I found him…annoying…but didn’t want to break the rules, so it turned out I broke the rules…will try to do better. ---
**Author:** ![Hooleehootoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/eada6e/32.png) [@Hooleehootoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hooleehootoo)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/355 "2016-01-28T20:34:57Z")
[Man arrested at Euro-Disneyland carrying handguns and a religious text](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-guns-idUSKCN0V627V). The religious text was You were really hoping I was going to say the King James Bible, weren’t you ? A’isha previously provided 2 examples of Christian-murder for apostasy. Perhaps it is just as common elsewhere as in Bangladesh and I am suffering from selection bias. How about this case? In 2015-2016, when someone was arrested with guns and a religious text, was there a proportional distribution of religious texts? As many Taoist texts as there are Taoists? ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/356 "2016-01-28T20:42:39Z")
> [@Hooleehootoo](#): > > [Man arrested at Euro-Disneyland carrying handguns and a religious text](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-guns-idUSKCN0V627V). > > The religious text was > > You were really hoping I was going to say the King James Bible, weren’t you ? > > A’isha previously provided 2 examples of Christian-murder for apostasy. Perhaps it is just as common elsewhere as in Bangladesh and I am suffering from selection bias. How about this case? In 2015-2016, when someone was arrested with guns and a religious text, was there a proportional distribution of religious texts? As many Taoist texts as there are Taoists? About time we invited a discussion of statistics to this thread! Hear hear! That oughta liven things up. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/357 "2016-01-28T20:59:33Z")
> [@Hooleehootoo](#): > > [Man arrested at Euro-Disneyland carrying handguns and a religious text](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-guns-idUSKCN0V627V). > > The religious text was > > You were really hoping I was going to say the King James Bible, weren’t you ? > > A’isha previously provided 2 examples of Christian-murder for apostasy. Perhaps it is just as common elsewhere as in Bangladesh and I am suffering from selection bias. How about this case? In 2015-2016, when someone was arrested with guns and a religious text, was there a proportional distribution of religious texts? As many Taoist texts as there are Taoists? If the initial conditions are unequal, there’s no reason to expect an equal outcome. Muslims are not randomly distributed. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/358 "2016-01-28T21:10:47Z")
> [@A\_isha](#): > > Huh, that’s weird. When I went to double-check the link, I could swear it said something about [textbooks.com](http://textbooks.com), but now that I look at it again, it’s the [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) link I thought I’d put in there when I posted it. This came up in another thread the other day. Apparently the board software is configured to replace certain links to commercial sites. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/359 "2016-01-28T21:41:02Z")
> [@Hooleehootoo](#): > > In 2015-2016, when someone was arrested with guns and a religious text, was there a proportional distribution of religious texts? As many Taoist texts as there are Taoists? The way that makes you bring guns to Disney Land is not the True Way. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892/360 "2016-01-29T00:14:45Z")
(lights fuse) > **[Definition of imam | Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/imam?s=t)** > > Imam definition, the officiating priest of a mosque. See more. \*imam [ih-mahm] noun, Islam. 1. the officiating **priest** of a mosque. 2. the title for a Muslim religious leader or chief. 3. one of a succession of seven or twelve religious leaders, believed to be divinely inspired, of the Shiʿites.\* (runs away) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-religious-leader-of-saudi-arabia-bans-chess/743892.md?page=19)