Assalaamu ‘alaykum

A couple of brothers and I were discussing various sneaky ways western culture attacks our ‘aqeedah, which is a separate issue from the obvious ways it influences us to sin. I thought it was a beneficial conversation so here are some points i want so share:

* Growing up, I thought that the devil was the one who punishes people in hell. This is due to the way he is portrayed in the cartoons i was watching as a young child. I even remember thinking “i hate shaytaan but the only thing i can thank him for is for punishing the evil people in hell.”
* I even thought it was a “good versus evil” kind of situation, like Allah versus the forces of shaytaan. So when I learned it’s Allah that punishes the evil in hell, i was a bit confused… especially when learning *shaytaan himself* will be punished in hell. I was like what?
* Cartoonish portrayal of the devil, angels, “the pearly gates,” heaven being on a cloud or something, ghosts and what not… this ruins the sanctity of the deen. As a result of this, we grow up not respecting the sacredness of the deen as much, and so we don’t take it as seriously.
* Children are fed fake stories from a very young age: tooth fairy, halloween (jack escaped heaven/hell and comes back to resurrect the dead or whatever), santa clause, etc. Then they grow up and learn that it was all fake… the problem is, they think all the stories of the prophets and the miracles are fake too, now! They lump in those amazing stories of the Qur’an and Sunnah together with the tooth fairy fakeness, and don’t separate between the two, and end up rejecting both because both have extraordinary events happening in them.
* This issue is compounded when you consider the cartoonish portrayal of the deen: kids grow “out of these silly stories” and then as adults they can’t fathom separating the falseness (toothfairy etc) from the haqq (angels, shaytaan, stories in Qur’an and Sunnah, etc) after the its portrayed in a cartoonish and false manner
* So many tv shows, movies, cartoons, centered around the idea that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. Addidas commercials like “impossible is nothing,” movies like rocky, rags to riches stories, etc. Whats the problem here? Well, Allah is almost never ever mentioned. We grow up thinking that we succeeded *solely* because of our own efforts, and not because of the favors of Allah. Yes, we took the asbaab (ways and means), but it Allah who grants tawfeeq.
* Shirk is all over the place! People swearing by other than Allah on tv (“I swear on my mom! cross my heart and hope to die!”), statements like “If it wasn’t for you, i would have never graduated school! Thank you!” showing superstitions, like perhaps a kid on tv tying his shoes a certain way before every baseball game (from what I know, baseball players can be quite superstitious) or people in general doing specific actions for “good luck,” wishing on a shooting star instead of making dua to Allah, “it’s 11:11, make a wish!” the list goes on.

I hope that his has opened our eyes for certain things to watch out for. Be mindful of what our children are watching on tv and phones. Better yet don’t even have a tv at home. It could seem harmless, but this could potentially be more harmful then the way western culture influences everyone to sin with portraying zina as beautiful, romantic, and normal, and all the other ways they beautify different sins.