Usama bin-Laden action figures have been a big seller in the Muslim world.
With the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan upon us, Muslim parents are in the market to purchase gifts for their children to celebrate Eid al-Fitr (the Festival of the Fast-Breaking), but various Pakistani activists are encouraging parents to take a pass on buying toys that glorify terrorists and and all things terrorism- related, as reported by Radio Free Europe.
A bevy of Pakistani peace activists, poets, singers. and pop stars have been handing out pamphlets and conducting awareness marches to motivate consumers to shy away from picking up toy Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers as gifts for their children to mark the end of Ramadan.
During the observance of Ramadan, Muslims are forbidden to eat, drink, or participate in any type of merry-making during hours of daylight (see slideshow). But once the holiday ends, toy guns and other related products that glorify terrorists and terrorism make their appearance. Sales of these toys forms a multi-million-rupee industry in the South Central Asian country.
As explained by Sana Ijaz, a peace activist in Pakistan’s violence-ridden Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province explains:
If we expose our children to these things from a tender age it will not be difficult for them to fall into the hands of extremists when they are teenagers.
The extremists can easily trap them into conducting a suicide bombing or being trained for other similar violent acts.
As CBS News reported in 2009, not only are plastic faux-weapons popular gifts during Eid al-Fitr. Usama bin-Laden action figures have been a big seller in the Muslim world. Other novelties that glorify the September 11, 2001 terror attack on the United States have also been a “must have” from Morocco to Kazakhstan to Indonesia.
