Asalaamu alaykum

I do not want to and nor do I intend to sound like a fundamentalist ranting and raving about the evils of Television. However, I do believe that this should not deter us from critically analysing the deleterious and negative effects of watching TV that have been thoroughly studied and documented. I provide a short list of sources at the end of this email that delve deeper into this issue. I present the following points:

• Since the 1950's, the US and other governments and universities around the world have been engaged in serious research into the field of mind control. They have spent many funds into conducting this research (including huge government grants), what I want to ask you (the reader) is this: why? What is the reason behind this mass learning effort into all forms of mind control which has included brainwashing techniques, the use of drugs, neurological stimuli, repetition techniques and others.

• Many people see TV as a form of mass mind control and this idea should not be brushed aside because the thing of it is: who actually regulates the TV programs, channels and stations? TV is not in our hands and yet we allow it to mould our lifestyle in the house and if you analyse all the material on TV, most of it is unlawful (haraam) to view from the Islamic perspective, and we should not take this lightly. What they call parental guidance (PG) is a joke!! You bring to me a film like Sccoby Doo and let me tell you about the haraam in it, point after point after point. It is lewd, indecent and wholly unsuitable for children to watch.

• Television is a corrupting influence on children; it will absolutely destroy their minds. If I told you that Iblis (Satan) was coming tonight to babysit your children for you, you would do everything in your power to stop him. But he has deluded us. He still uses his instrument and disseminates his deceptions through that box labelled Hitachi or Panasonic or Toshiba or Sony. "O, men! Certainly the promise of Allah is true. Let not then this present life deceive you, nor let the Chief Deceiver deceive you about Allah. Verily Satan is an enemy to you: so treat him as an enemy. He only invites his adherents, that they may become Companions of the Blazing Fire. " (Qur'an 35:5-6)

• If you look at the themes running through programs that children watch (like the simpsons, malcolm in the middle), the main theme is this: Disobey your parents. The children in these programs act as a type of role model. Bart Simpson and the likes of Malcolm are constantly fighting with their parents, arguing with their parents and undermining the authority of their parents. The main them is disobedience to parents, which is a major sin (kabira) and this is what television teaches our young.

• If you watch films like Aladdin (The Little Mermaid and many other "innocent" films), one of the most insidious messages of that film is this: Tradition is something that should be broken. In this film it is against the law (a sacred and old Law, ring any bells?) of the land that the princess cannot marry a common man and the father is also against it. The lesson of this film is threefold: 1) Disobey your father 2) marry whomever you want to marry 3) your father will still love you in the end. At the end of the film the father says about the Law that it IS a tradition but let us just change it a little bit (I hope the bells have stopped ringing and you realise what he is talking about, and if they haven't then email me back and I will tell you what the father is REALLY talking about).

(NB: people should be aware of the fact that the father's idea is very similar to the idea in the Shafi'i school of law called kafa'a or suitable match where a man from a lowly profession is not suitable to a woman from a higher profession. This is an accepted opinion in the Shafi'i' school (madhab) (see Reliance of the Traveller (Shaf'i' manual of Sacred Law) p. 523), although the other three schools of Sunni Orthodoxy (hanafi, maliki, shafi'i) do not take this position.

A second point I want to raise is that in the film the princess is about to have her hand cut off for stealing an apple to feed a poor person. Now we know that the Prophet (on him be blessings of Allah and peace) said once: "there is no cutting when people are hungry". Not only is this a misrepresentation, but coupled with the previous points made above, many have deduced that the film Disney's Aladdin is an attack on the Laws of Islam, the Shari'ah.)

• The above are "innocent" films and programs being put out to the masses, you take your children to them or allow them to watch this material and there is indoctrination going on, second by second; and the best form of indoctrination is that which you do not realise is taking place.

• Watching TV is an addiction; this has been proven by studies whose statistics prove this. People who stop watching television have exhibited the same types of withdrawal symptoms as those who withdraw from chemical drugs and this has been scientifically documented (see references at end of email).

• Most of what people watch on television is what is termed "fluff", it is empty, unenlightening rubbish; you do not learn anything from it; news is a good example of this. Neil Postman (a PhD in Communications theory from Columbia University) in his work showed that during the first Gulf War people who were watching CNN knew much less about the war than those who were reading articles, books, etc. What studies have shown is that watching most news programmes on CNN, BBC, CBS, FOX and others is in fact detrimental to one’s intellect because people end up being dumbed down by being fed monotonous, repetitive and uneducational information whereas reading material yourself actually enhances your understanding of world events, as per previous example. A related point, which is more pressing now, given the recent mass release of photos of our brothers being tortured in the Middle East, is the idea of showing the suffering of people on TV or by photos. Firstly, looking at this type of material does not benefit oneself. What happens is that you become de-sensitised to their suffering: you end up looking at a photo, being disgusted and then turning the page to go have your lunch. The denigration of our brothers and sisters has to stop, and the question is even more pressing given that Muslim media sources are also the ones publishing these photos. Sidi Hamza Yusuf has said that those photojournalists are just dogs over carcasses (the ones who take and publish photos of dead people) and that they have no compassion for the victims and their families. Something to think about.

• We need to instil in our children the love of reading. This is absolutely imperative; we need to instil in them a desire to read at an early age because it has been documented that children who grow up watching television end up not reading and not wanting to read, especially at the times when it is most important to read i.e. exam time (key stage 3, GCSE, A level, degree-level). TV is very hard to compete with once children become accustomed to regularly watching it, because watching TV screens, computer screens and video game screens (like when the Playstation 2, XBox, or GameCube are linked up with the TV) is a form of neural stimulation, and parents who use the TV as a babysitter are unwittingly destroying their children’s minds. You have been warned.

Many people who have given up television have attested to the fact that their quality of life has enhanced and that they do not miss it. Instead of families seating themselves around to watch a television program as being their nightly family get-together, we should do something more natural and human, interact with each other more and enrich each other’s lives. Unfortunately, the fact is that television has become a substitute for true family interaction. Technology has turned the traditional family upside down, and far from being sophisticated and advanced, "Western" culture has truly lost what it means to be human.

A recommendation to all is that next Ramadan, make a resolution not to watch TV for the whole month (unplug and put it in a store cupboard or something similar) and then see what happens. If you feel that you cannot bring yourself to do this, then you have to seriously ask yourself whether you are an addict because watching TV on a regular basis every day is an indicative of addiction. At the end of the month, think to yourself: was there a good change in your life in that month or a bad change. As a first step only, we should look at what we normally watch and decide whether it is unlawful or lawful, beneficial or harmful, educating or mind-numbing rubbish.

In conclusion, I am not saying that TV is haraam, because I myself use a televideo occasionally for videos of Islamic talks. However, Muslims are people who weigh the benefit and the harm in the balance and then go with what's more beneficial. May Allah, the Most Wise give us the wisdom and insight to avoid harm and to run towards that which is beneficial and pleasing to Him.

Ma'salaam

M. Tauseef Tariq

This short discourse is based on the talks of Shaykh (Sidi) Hamza Yusuf, personal research and the following books (for those of you who want to know more):

The Other Parent: The inside story of the media's effect on our children, by James P. Steyer, Chelsea Clinton

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, by Jerry Mander

How to Watch TV News, by Neil Postman, Steve Powers

Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman (Neil Postman's other books are worth reading as well)

The Plug-In Drug, by Marie Winn

Endangered Minds: Why Children don't think and what we can do about it, by Jane M. Healy

Glued to the Tube: The Threat of Television Addiction to Today's Family, by Cheryl Pawlowski

The Technological Society, by Jacques Ellul

In the Absence of the Sacred, by Jerry Mander

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