Innovative Minds?

Take a look at Innovative Minds a website from a company that develops Islamic software. My attention was drawn to two pages, firstly their Boycott Marks & Spencer page which lists the reasons why M&S should be boycotted; their support the Zionist state of Israel. It's odd because on the very rare occasions that I go to M&S's flagship store on Oxford Street (Marble Arch End) it is full of Arab women from Middle East countries. Apparently these women do salve their consciences by cutting out the Marks & Spencer labels from their garments before flying home.

The second page that I found of interest was the one for a Islamic Fun games CD. It is described as "A collection of Islamic Games on CD-ROM. The best way to educate your child - they learn whilst playing!". Apparently "SUBJECTS your child will learn include: Dinniyyat, Akhalaq, Al-Qur'an, Arabic, Nabuwat, Fiqh, Aqaed, Sirah, Hadith, Ummah, Tahara, Salat, Hajj, Leadership, Islamic History, Islamic Politics, Islamic Science" All very laudable I am sure however that doesn't really cover all that is on the CD. The CD blurb continues "Your child will learn about Islam by playing lots of exciting games, full of colourful animations and cute sounds effects. Six different games to choose from, with lots of levels - each time they play its different - lots of fun! The games revolve around an Islamic database of over
1000 questions - each with audio, and lots of images. Three separate age groups supported : 5-7 years, 8-10 years and 11 and over - each with its own database of questions. Makes a great gift. It will keep the whole family entertained for years to come !"

So what are the games? The first five are standard young children's computer games as you can find on hundreds of CDs - "TREE HOP - Help the cat retrieve its ball." and "Two Bunny Race - Two player game - which bunny will cross the finish line first?" and similar BUT The sixth game is a little more unusual...

"THE RESISTANCE (*)
You are a farmer in South Lebanon who has joined the Islamic Resistance to defend your land and family from the invading zionists"

Here's a screen shot




It would appear that the child has to answer a multiple choice question and if they get it right they can shoot at a tank flying the Israeli flag.

Innovative Minds have obviously received criticism of this game because they helpfully provide an explanation - "Some in the media have kicked up a fuss over this game. It seems that the media is silent when they, the zionists, use their tanks to slaughter our children but when our children play a shoot-em up game where they shoot zionist tanks in return for correct answers we are accused of training terrorists and instilling hatred towards Jews! On the contrary the questions in the game educate children not to fall for the zionist lie that zionism, jewishness and Judaism are synonymous but to understand that zionism, a racist ideology, has nothing to do with Judaism - one of the questions in the history/politics section asks "What is the difference between a Jew and a zionist?"." I would like to know what the Innovative Minds answer to that question is. However more pertinently, the whole premise of the game is incorrect, there are no Israeli tanks in South Lebanon - there are however armed units from Hezbollah and the Syrian army, but then they are part of the Ummah.


One final image, I had a browse through the rest of their site and this image to represent "Women in Islam" I found instructive