Use These Terrifying Ringtones or the Taliban Will Kill You

For Afghans, having to use Taliban approved ring-tones in order to save one's life wouldn't be so bad if the tones didn't have gunshots in the background.

For Afghans, having to use Taliban approved ring-tones in order to save one's life wouldn't be so bad if the tones didn't have gunshots in the background. When traveling through unsafe areas, fearful Afghans have started switching out their secular ring-tones just in case they run into the Taliban. "If they search your phone and see your videos and songs, they will think you are their sympathizer," Haji Mohammad Khan, a Kabul grocer who has bought one of these safe-tones told The Wall Street Journal's Dion Nissenbaum and Habib Khan Totakhil. "On occasion, it can save your life."

Apparently the best sellers are "emotional ones sung by children with beautiful voices," Nasratullah Niazai, a vendor, told Nissenbaum and Totakhil. That sounds sweet and harmless, but like we said, there are gunshots involved. Take, "Doomsday," one of the three samples The Journal has, which has the following lyrics.

Its Judgment Day for the Satan of the West
The evening is blazing, blazing
The sound of machine guns can be heard
The screaming of the murderous can be heard
(Fighters) are positioned and ready on the top of the mount
The evening is blazing, blazing

Though sung in Arabic, the message comes pretty clear as gunshots blast in the background. We couldn't embed the audio clip here, but you can hear for yourself over at The Journal, along with the other two, "Teenager" and "Suicide Bomber." From the names alone, these aren't exactly the kinds of songs one would want to hear every time mom calls.

From a non-arabic speaker's perspective, the songs, or rather the music, doesn't sound too offensive. To give you an idea, here's one that Danger Room's Spencer Ackerman unearthed.