SIGN UP - IT'S FREE!
SEARCH FSM
| National Debt Clock |
A million seconds pass in 12 days.
A billion seconds pass in 31 years.
A trillion seconds pass in 31,688 years!
October 21, 2008
Exclusive: Should ‘Islam Doll’ Worry Consumers?
When someone sent me the link to the YouTube video (editor’s note: the YouTube video is at the end of this article), I had to see the toy for myself. Apparently there was a baby doll for sale at Wal-Mart that says, “Islam is the light.”
This is puzzling and troubling on a number of levels. First of all, this wasn’t the Islam Teaching Baby Doll. It was the Fisher Price Little Mommy Cuddle ‘n Coo baby doll.
So it wasn’t supposed to say anything about religion or a world view. It’s just supposed to cuddle and coo.
I went to my local Wal-Mart to pick up my own Baby Cuddle ‘n Coo. I didn’t want to just go by what I heard and saw online. In Oklahoma, they were pulling these dolls off the shelves. But in my suburban area outside New York City, there were a few of the Fisher Price toys right there in the toy section.
After a bunch of babbling, it was pretty clear to hear a sentence emerge from the tiny toy tot. “Islam is the light.” Every time I showed the doll to friends and family, they heard it as well. Even my children were surprised to hear this clear phrase emerge from the baby doll.
On the Fisher Price Web site, the doll is described: “This adorable newborn baby doll wants to reach out and hug you! Her sweet cooing, giggling and realistic hugging motions will make little girls want to snuggle and cuddle her.”
I have raised four kids and heard a lot of baby babble. I have even strained to hear something in the nonsense that wasn’t there. The closest I ever got was “ingy.”
The phrase “Islam is the light” emerges so much and so often from this motion-activated doll, that my husband tossed it out into the yard one morning at 5 AM when it wouldn’t stop. We had it on top of the refrigerator because our three-year-old wanted to play with it. After a while, both the babbling and the Islamic indoctrination become pretty irritating.
I also visited K-Mart where they had a whole shelf full of the dolls. The toys say “Islam is the light” every third time they are activated. So I got them all to the same place in their recordings and then waved my hand in front of all the dolls. They said, “Coo, coo, coo. Islam is the light!!” in a chorus. That turned some heads in Kmart.
According to Mattel, the parent company of Fisher Price, we are projecting our own fears on the doll. They deny that the doll was programmed to say this phrase. Somebody messed up and the company should admit it.
An e-mail from the Mattel Consumer Service Center read as follows:
Thank you for your recent e-mail in which you explain that you find the baby sounds of the Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo ® doll upsetting. We assure you that our intention was purely to inspire children's imaginations and creativity. It was certainly not our intention to have the baby cooing and giggling sounds represent any words other than "mama," the one scripted word.
The Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo ® doll's "baby talk" was intended to encourage more realistic play with the doll. The Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo ® doll allows young girls to play in a fun and nurturing way, and pretend to be a mommy.
Please be assured that:
-The Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo dolls feature realistic baby sounds including sweet cooing, giggling and baby babble with no real sentence structure;
-The only scripted word that the doll actually says is "mama." There is a sound that may resemble something close to the word "night, right, or light." To avoid any potential misinterpretation, we have eliminated that segment of the sound file from future production.
-Because the original sound track is compressed into a file that can be played through an inexpensive toy speaker, the final sound may vary from the original recording.
We appreciate the time you took to let us know your thoughts and truly value your feelings relating to this product. We apologize if the baby sounds caused you concern and regret any misinterpretation that may have occurred.
Thank you again for your feedback regarding the Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo doll.
Sincerely,
Mattel Consumer Relations
The Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo ® doll's "baby talk" was intended to encourage more realistic play with the doll. The Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo ® doll allows young girls to play in a fun and nurturing way, and pretend to be a mommy.
Please be assured that:
-The Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo dolls feature realistic baby sounds including sweet cooing, giggling and baby babble with no real sentence structure;
-The only scripted word that the doll actually says is "mama." There is a sound that may resemble something close to the word "night, right, or light." To avoid any potential misinterpretation, we have eliminated that segment of the sound file from future production.
-Because the original sound track is compressed into a file that can be played through an inexpensive toy speaker, the final sound may vary from the original recording.
We appreciate the time you took to let us know your thoughts and truly value your feelings relating to this product. We apologize if the baby sounds caused you concern and regret any misinterpretation that may have occurred.
Thank you again for your feedback regarding the Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo doll.
Sincerely,
Mattel Consumer Relations
I would disagree. This doll doesn’t sound like it says “Islam is the light,” it says it. There are little baby sounds in a baby voice and then it is as if James Earl Jones comes on and says ‘Islam is the light” as clearly as he says, “This is CNN.”
There was also a rumor that it said “Satan is King.” Mine didn’t say that. But none of my Beatles records ever said “Paul is dead” either.
So what’s the real problem here? Well, if the doll had said “Jesus is Lord” or “Israel is the Chosen People,” we’d have some quickly recalled toys and apologies out there for excluding others and daring to hint at religion.
There is an unwillingness to admit a mistake as well. Those who complain about this are vulnerable to being called intolerant or anti-Islam. So maybe we shouldn’t complain. The issue is that there is a general reluctance to make a fuss over things related to Islamic or Sharia law.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Alex Alexiev, vice president for research at the Center for Security Policy, has pointed out, for example that Sharia-Compliant Finance “poses a number of significant threats to the United States and the West. Many of these are neither well understood nor addressed by Western governments with the partial exception of terror funding. They range from financing terrorism and radical Islamist networks around the world to undermining our capital markets and legitimizing medieval barbarism in the form of Sharia doctrine – whose ultimate objective is nothing short of the destruction of Western civilization and the imposition of Islamist rule worldwide.
He goes on to state that “[T]here appears to be a puzzling timidity not to say an outright reluctance on the part of Washington to do anything that impugns our ‘strategic allies’ in Saudi Arabia for their blatant and well-documented support of anti-American extremism and terrorism.”
So it’s quiet and no one wants to talk about it – like this doll.
FamilySecurityMatters.org contributing editor Susan Konig (Susan@FamilySecurityMatters.org) is a nationally read columnist and author of "Why Animals Sleep So Close to the Road and Other Lies I Tell My Children." www.SusanKonig.com
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (0) | Sign Up for FSM Updates!
