Terrorism for Kids in Kuwait

I was walking in one of the streets of Downtown Kuwait City earlier tonight looking to get a toy for my kid. I walked into one of those shops that sell bicylces and other kids stuff, and I vividly remember those old days when I would ask to be driven to the Al Waleed store or the 'Kids R Us' ripoff from the US's "Toy's R Us" brand during Eid festivities. 

So there I was, enjoying myself reminiscing about what had happened to all those Lego sets and model cars I used to buy with my Eid money, when my eye caught the toy pictured below. I suddenly felt a rush of anger and disgust at what had happened to our world today, when people, responsible men and women, would carelessly allow such items of vile disgust to be sold as 'toys' to our young children!

Click for larger size

For those of you who can't read Arabic, it's a picture of a toy machine gun, with a picture of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Al Quds/Jerusalem. It's called 'the Machine Gun of Salahuddin', in reference to the famous Saladin, the Muslim Commander who routed the Crusaders at Jerusalem. At the bottom is an excerpt from a poem (supposedly) or some sort of Call to Arms, calling for the Liberation of Al Quds, complete with a sillhouette of a prancing horse with a sword-yielding fighter on top, and  the Mulsim term, "Allahu Akbar", which has become-sadly-more of a motto than anything else.

It's bad enough to be selling weapons as toys, it's even worse to associate toy weapons with Islam, and I can fathom all that by now, thanks to the media firestorm since the events of September 11. But what really made me sick to my stomach was the 'trademark' logo that was stamped onto the box:

Click for larger size

It's Arabic for 'The Muslim Child's Toys'. I was so enraged by this that I called the salesman over and asked him how he could sell this kind of garbage. He apologetically explained that the local vendor sold him this toy, as well as others. I asked him who it was, and he told me that it was the same distributor that sells those "Fullah" Dolls, (Islamic Barbie Dolls!) I kindly asked him to seriously consider taking this and similar bile off his shelves if he's serious about earning an honest living.

A short search on Google yielded me the results I was looking for. It's a Dubai-based company called "New Boy", and sure enough, Fullah, Dora and other characters are there, but not this Taliban-inspired trademark. So I emailed them, attaching the picture, and asked them whether they're the ones responsible for selling this brand in Kuwait, and who their local distributor was. However, I'm not holding my breath for a reply.

It's bad enough that the 21st Century so far had seen nothing but one crisis after another, one war after another, and it's even worse when my own religion's been hijacked by evil fanatical murderers, It's worse still when those fanatics are being protected and represented by some MP's here in Kuwait. But to brainwash our children with toys like this? It's disgusting. 

I feel sorry for the Marketing Manager who dreamed up this product in the first place. I'm betting he grows an un-groomed beard, and spends more time on the 'net looking for Zionist-inspired conspiracy theories than understanding God's message.