The reason it upsets me is that Some People assume (and worse, believe) that this knowledge is acquired automagically, like a Gift from Allah (SWT). The truth is that the act of teaching is not the same as the act of learning, just as looking is not the same as seeing, but a lot of people don't seem to comprehend the difference.
It's not just a question of language ... people attach false meanings to a lot of things.
The United States Government has recently enacted legislation that imposes a quarter of a million dollar fine for posting "offensively objectionable" material on the Internet. It is called the "Communications Decency Act (CDA)." A three-judge panel has issued an injunction prohibiting enforcement of the law because the term "offensively objectionable" is too ambiguous. (It has not been declared unconstitutional as reported by some.)
This issue behind the law is that people don't want their children to see dirty pictures or read dirty stories on the Internet. The operative word here is "dirty", and what is meant by that is things that "decent, God-fearing people" should not see or read, i.e., "unclean" things.
There is a site on the World Wide Web (WWW) called the "African-American Holocaust" page. It has pictures of black men lyched and mutilated by white mobs in several states in America during the first half of this century. There are photographs of bodies in morgues and in coffins, though most are still hanging from trees.
Some People would call these photographs "offensively objectionable". Some People also find Michaelangelo's statue of "David" (Daud) offensive, because he is totally nude. They find it offensive for many reasons, but the reasons don't matter ... the problem is that we cannot all agree that it is "offensive".
Muslims have a very clear answer, and are united in this ... the display of human genitals in sculpture (as opposed to eductional renderings in a medical textbook) is a Bad Thing, regardless of the age of the viewer. "When they are old enough" they can be shown the pictures in the books.
So, that's what the Communications Decency Act (CDA) is all about ... trying to legislate what it is safe for children to see and read "until they are old enough to know". This is something that Muslims in America should support ... in principle.
But this is America, and the Conservative Right has gone too far in it's attempt to censor the Internet, because the ultimate responsibility lies with the parents at home!!
What has people scared is that they think children can walk into any public library that has a computer connected to the Internet and see pictures of naked women from the current month's Playboy and Hustler magazines as easily as they can see pictures of minors and homosexuals engaging in acts that are illegal in many states, even among consenting adults.
This is a Real Problem, but legislation is not the solution. And this particular piece of legislation misses the mark by a country mile.
Muslims do not need to support the CDA because they have already taught their children not to go into places that sell magazines with "filthy pictures" in them, and not to read them if they accidently encounter them. Such children will not require supervision when they use the Internet.
Why? Because they are Righteous Muslims and Allah (SWT) will protect them from these things? No. Because their fear of Allah (SWT) will prevent them from looking for these things.
You see, the way it works is like this ... to see or read anything on the Internet, the first thing you have to do is find it. I mean, you Really, Really have to go hunting for it. Nobody throws naked women at your computer like the men shoving leaflets in your hand as you walk through Times Square or any other metropolitan Combat Zone.
It's not the same as walking into the United States Capitol in Washington, DC and being confronted by a wall-sized mural of a Revolutionary battle scene with a bare-bussomed woman wearing an American flag leading the assault. (This is true ... I have seen it.)
"Offensively objectionable" material on the Internet does not appear on your screen unexpectedly ... you must request each "page" of information by deliberate selection. But Some People do not want their children to be "exposed" to Michaelangelo's "David" while doing their homework for elementary school. (Many Muslims feel this way.)
The problem is that what is "offensive" to Some People is "art" or "science" or "history" to many others. The problem is that Some People think that any "art" that shows human beings is prima face "offensively objectionable" for religious reasons, under the prohibition against "graven images".
Most people can agree on what is "smut", and very few object to identification photographs or the pictures in journalistic publications, even if they are of lynchings or "scandelously" clothed women ... it's "News", so we cut ourselves some slack.
And what it all comes down to is that it doesn't matter what we call it ... we shouldn't look at it, or at least not let children look at it until they are old enough. And that is a decision for parents to make, not the government!
All families are different because all children are different. Some parents will tell male children things at a certain age that they will not tell female children until they are older. Some are the other way around. The ratio of male to female children will have an effect on when they are told what.
But when it comes time to explain some things, what can you do? Words are often enough to explain the difference between Good Things and Bad Things. And we all know that sometimes it will be the child who sees something first, and then they must ask their parents if it is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing.
Parents who are really paranoid, or have reason not to trust their children with the family modem when they are not at home, can get software to "filter" the input to their computer from the Internet. On the other hand, the people who make this material available on the Internet have a responsibility to add special codes in the material so that the software can detect "questionable" content.
As an example of this, I will relate my own experience as a Muslim who was once a professional photographer. Twenty five years ago, I made my living by taking pictures of partially nude women. They were ecdysiasts, or professional stripteasers, women who disrobed in public for money. They did it Very Well, and some earned as much as three hundred dollars per night.
Without going into how much of a Bad Thing this was, let me say that there was never anything sexually about these purely business relationships between two professionals. They paid me one hundred dollars, and I paid my rent. They used the pictures to get work in cities around the country, and lived out of suitcases most of the year in order to put their children through college.
But many young women get seduced by unscrupulous photographers every year. Many young Muslim girls are breaking away from their Islamic values as they are exposed to the Bad Things in Western (American) culture. Some People say that this is the work of shaitan ("satan"), and I happen to agree with them ... it's called "Temptation", and Allah (SWT) lets it happen all the time as a constant test of our fear of Him.
Now the biggest dilema a parent faces is that if they tell their children not to do something that is Bad, they may also be giving them ideas that would not have ordinarily occured to them. In the case of my Web page, I have an example of that problem.
I wanted to create a page that will teach people the tricks used for seduction, because if you know what can happen, you can defend yourself. On the other hand, I risk teaching these tricks to people who will use them to seduce girls who are Totally Clueless about them.
I finally decided that Allah knows best if this is something for which I will be punished or rewarded, but my sense of what is Right compells me to do it ... to remain silent is to do more harm than good.
So I offer the story about taking pictures without showing any pictures, because Some People might be offended by them. What I did was place picture icons on the page, and if you choose to see one of them, then you must click it with the computer's mouse-pointer. I am not forcing you to look at the pictures. If I think that they would be "offensively objectionable", then there is a code on the page with the picture that will tell filtering software not to display it.
This is as responsible as I can be under the circumstances. I know that there are many parents who would like to be able to teach their children the difference between Good images and Bad images by showing them examples. All of my Muslim friends would find most of these pictures "offensive", and I do not think that they would want their wives, sons, or daughters to see them. But they can share the knowledge of my words with them, without compromising their modesty.
On the other hand, all of my non-Muslim friends agree that they would have no objection to showing any of these pictures to their own mothers, because they are Art, and only the pathologically sexually repressed would call them "dirty" or "smutty".
The gripping hand is that none of my Muslim friends who have seen them think that anyone would call them "pornographic" or even "erotic", although it is not a Good Thing to look at them more than once, or to want to think about seeing them again.
And that is my point ... everyone agrees that these pictures are appropriate for "educational" purposes, and that they are not, in themselves, Bad Things. But unless parents teach their children how to distinguish why things that are "appropriate" in some contexts are not in others (i.e., why wanting to look at them too much leads to Really Bad Things, and how to control that temptation), then they run the great risk of wandering from the Straight Path which Allah (SWT) has set for them.
As for the learning? Well, do the best you can to teach, and trust in Allah that your children will learn. On the other hand, it helps if you have some examples. The gripping hand is that from my experiences before becoming a Muslim, you can help them avoid the mistakes that I made.
Some People will say that I am a tool of Satan for doing this. I say I'm just trying to teach you to recognize his works, but if you don't want to learn, that's not my responsibility. She's your daughter, and Some People will try to do Bad Things to her. Saying that I will suffer in Hell for trying to warn her will not help you to protect her.
You must learn for yourself if and when it is apropriate to share this knowledge with her. A little knowledge is sometimes a Bad Thing, but too little knowledge is always a Bad Thing.
That is all I have to say. -=DAH=- 11-Jul-96
Last update: 2002-07-19 by dennette@wiz-worx.com