Sunni Sister has a good post up on Muslim parenting and the fear of advertising, yooth culcha etc. infiltrating our kids. It has got me reflecting.

There is a part of me that is an ‘idealising’ parent. (Of COURSE I would like to only let my precious thing eat organic food, ban the television, limit her contact with the corrupting outside world and move to a commune up in the hills and fill her time with Qur’an memorisation and dhikr). But as much as I have that urge there is also the realist in me, and we don’t live in a commune up in the hills.

But I’m scared about the easy availability of drugs and alcohol, and the sexually permissive culture that is the Naughty-Noughties. I know old people say “it wasn’t like that in my day” but really it wasn’t. When I was going to school, the bad kid was the one who smoked cigarettes. Forget drugs, sex and rock and roll. I remember when it was a scandal that the Neighbours characters of unmarried teenagers Scott and Charlene booked a hotel room and NEARLY had sex!!! Now, on Neighbours and Home and Away, unmarried teenagers seem to be having sex left, right and centre. (I don’t watch the shows, but I catch the TV Week headlines whilst waiting in line to buy my groceries at the supermarket).

So, even though we let Yasmin watch a bit of telly as a toddler (mostly Nick Jr and Disney Playhouse) as soon as any advertising came on, I made it my life mission to say: “that’s advertising - they want us to spend our money buying their things but we should think about whether we really want that or whether we should save money instead.” By the age of four my daughter could spot advertising within milliseconds of the advert starting. I remember wonderful conversations like:

“Mummy, they want us to buy that car, but we want to save up our money to go visit Granny Mary in Ireland, don’t we!”

Then she hit four and a half. And all of a sudden, she realised that not only was advertising about boring things like cars, and bank accounts but fun stuff like dolls, toys and food. THEN it became “Mummy, that’s advertising isn’t it. Can we buy that?” She knows what advertising is, and she LIKES it!!

All of a sudden she convinced her Granny to buy her some Activa she’d seen on the telly, told her father she wanted a bunk-bed she saw advertised in a newspaper, and expressed a desire to obtain some Pro-Activ!! Yes… Jessica Simpson worked her magic on my nearly five year old. (We decided and explained that we would not be buying her a bunk (yet) as she is too young, and just plain out said ‘no’ to the Pro-Activ!!!)

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Support widespread for late-term abortion

LP has a discussion on the appropriateness of what women should cover/uncover and the lack of autonomy of women to decide what and how/much they want to cover/uncover.

And it’s not about Muslim women and the veil ;P it’s the Olympics sports uniforms for women.

More from Stark & Glock (remember this was written in the mid-’60s). The researchers examined data from a questionnaire run on a national sample of Americans in 1954, the aim being to gain an understanding of the religious knowledge of Americans. The following questions were asked:

a) what is the first book of the Bible?
b) where was Jesus born?
c) who delivered the Sermon on the Mount?
d) who was the mother of Jesus?
e) will you name the founder of one religion besides Christianity?*
f) what is the Holy Trinity?
g) will you name two major prophets mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible?
h) one person wrote most of the books of the New Testament. Can you name that person?
i) what country ruled Jerusalem during the time of Jesus?

Amazingly, 86 percent of Catholics could not name a single OT prophet, and two thirds of American Christians did not know who preached the Sermon on the Mount (Jesus).

Jews… were nearly as likely as Catholics to know who preached the Sermon on the Mount, they exceeded Protestants in identifying the Holy Trinity, and they surpassed Catholics in knowing who wrote most of the books of the New Testament. They surpassed Catholics in identifying the first book of the Bible. (Only 19% of America’s Catholics could answer “Genesis”.) On other matters directly pertaining to Judaism, such as Old Testament prophets, they were the highest of the three major religious groups. (p. 162, American Piety)

I wonder if much has changed in fifty years?

* Jews did not receive credit for founders of Judaism

I am sure there is a quiz plugin somewhere, but I’m too lazy to go find it and install it. Anyhoo, from Stark & Glock’s American Piety questionnaire, how many of the following are NOT verses from the Bible (and don’t cheat before you answer).

Verse 1: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

Verse 2: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak.”

Verse 3: “Blessed are the strong: for they shall be the sword of God.”

Verse 4: “For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”

Verse 5: “For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Verse 6: “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”

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And I thought I’d do a similar quiz for the Qur’an. Which of the following are NOT ayat from the Qur’an (translated into English):

Aya 1: Say: ‘If ye do love God, follow me: God will love you and forgive you your sins: For God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’

Aya 2: Permission is given to slay the Jews and Christians for the iniquities they have committed against you and for blaspheming against God, the Most High; and leave no Jew or Christian alive in the Sacred Precincts, but kill them or drive them out to scurry in the wilderness.

Aya 3: And the servants of God, Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say, ‘peace!’

Aya 4: Women are a temptation unto men, for their comely figures and their alluring nature. It is Satan who is behind their wiles. The righteous man speaks not to a woman who is not his tilth, nor does he suffer her to speak in public.

Answers coming shortly!