You can’t know whether to laugh or cry at the BBC’s tricks and desperate attempts to make us love Islam.
The latest is a rather sinister attempt to brainwash our children with a new version of the Arabian Nights...Jamillah and Aladdin..starting tonight on CBBC.
I noted the programme in the Sunday Times TV review. I was going to ignore it though I suspected it was a programme with a message or two, not just a positive feminine role model with a ‘feisty girl’ in the lead, but perhaps the usual subtext about diversity, immigrants and of course Islam, it being set in the Middle East…love the characters, love Islam if just by default. Then I had a look at the Independent’s write up and that just confirmed I was probably right about the motivation behind producing such a programme….
Why children should watch CBBC’s Jamillah and Aladdin this weekend
A new series based on the classic Arabian Nights story will air on Cbeebies and CBBC this weekend. It’s just the sort of diverse, positive series children need
Since the terror attacks in Paris two weeks ago, much has been written about what we should let children watch on television, and how much exposure to the news is advisable for young kids.
As the name suggests, it’s based on the classic Arabian Nights’ tale.
It’s perfect timing, I think. When we want to show children that other countries and cultures can be celebrated and enjoyed – and are not just places of bombs and fear. The cast looks like the Britain we recognise – the three lead rolls are played by black actors – and the characters are inquisitive. Genie translates Jamillah’s request for “an adventure” into a trip to the Middle East. She is transfixed in the bazaar by the snake charmers the belly dancers and the street vendors. Maybe some of the children watching will recognise the name Baghdad from the news and come to think about this city and others like it in a different light. And in Jamillah and Aladdin’s friendship they might see that while not all children look, talk or have the same beliefs as us, we can still all be mates and equals not foes.
Of course, it’s just a TV programme and we shouldn’t over-blow its importance, But, if we continue with positive, diverse programming, then it can play a role in shaping the next generation’s belief systems, values and morals.In an interview, 11-year-old Blossom was asked what her three wishes would be, given the chance. Her first? “Equality in the world.” Nice.
Sweet. But propaganda all the same, showing us loveable Muslims from which we, the children, are supposed to pick up the unspoken message that if ‘muslims’ are loveable then Islam could be as well. What did the Jesuits, channelling Aristotle apparently, say? ‘Give Me the Child Until He is Seven, and I Will Show You the Man‘”
Shame the BBC is promoting another set of religious fanatics to young impressionable minds…..perhaps a better education about Islam would be more helpful to the children to make them understand what is going on in the world and what is the motivation behind terror attacks rather than a cosy little programme promoting love and harmony when unfortunately one side has no intention of ‘honouring’ such sentiments.
This cartoon in the Times illustrates the problem with the narrative which buries its head in the sand on one subject…..
The problem isn’t primarily the fact that Saudi is a harsh regime chopping off heads, the problem is the reasons why they do it…and, more importantly, why they are allowed to come into this country spreading highly inflammatory fundamentalist Islamic propaganda through Mosques, universities, Islamic ‘information’ centres, madrassas and of course not forgetting the close ties with the great and the good in our society, not to mention the Government itself.
The problem is the theology behind the sword not the fact of the sword itself. But who dares mention that?….except Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times who, jokingly, em, suggests we would be just as well to bomb Luton as the Islamic State because it is the ideology not IS itself that is the problem. Bomb IS and ‘radical’ Islam still exists….hoever bombing IS will stop a lot of killing on a grand and savage scale.