ISLAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY ONLINE
Volume 12, December 2009
St. Louis, Missouri

Editor: Mohamed Ziauddin MSW LCSW ACSW

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Most Merciful

Editorial:

As part of practicing Islam we need to be vigilant in terms of being away from drinking alcohol or abusing illegal drugs. We also need to be extra careful when it comes to protecting our children from being lured and exposed to temptations of drinking through various ways including the media, social circle that the children associate with et.c.

Consumption of alcohol has harmful effects on the individual and the society, some of the below verses of the Quran will reflect on the prohibition of Alcohol in Islam.

Surah 2:219

"They ask about intoxicants and greed of chance. Say: In both of them there is a great sin and means of profit for men, and their sin is greater than their profit. And they ask you to what they should spend. Say: What you can spare. Thus does Allah make clear to you the communications, that you may ponder".

Surah 4:43

"O you who believe! do not go near prayer when you are Intoxicated until you know (well) what you say..."

Surah 5:90

"O, Ye who believe! wine and game of chance and idols and divining arrows are only the abomination of Satan's handiwork. So shun each of them that you may prosper".

Below is an excellent article titled: Kids drunk in Cyberspace

KIDS DRUNK IN CYBERSPACE
(Patrick Moore. tech.yahoo.com)

"As the alcohol industry has effectively lobbied Congress and their advertising dollars feed the mainstream media, and little attention is paid to the very real and significant effects of their marketing campaigns focused on the youth market.

Big alcohol companies have turned to the internet and mobile devices to market booze to underage drinkers. They face some restrictions when it comes to television, since alcohol companies are supposed to limit advertising to thirty percent or less underage audience, but the online marketing projections are not measured carefully, so the weaker projections and enforcement make online marketing attractive to alcohol companies who want to get around established codes.

The Marin Institute, reports that big alcohol companies have found a new way to put corporate greed in front of the principles of "responsibility and service".

We should be spending our time worrying about something that really kills American teens: "Underage drinking". Liquor brands like Anheuser-Busch try to create a smoke screen by creating web sites full of kid-enticing interactive features such as games but then saying that the sites are for adults only. As the companies well know that the kids can easily access the sites.

A Georgetown University study reports on some sites, underage youths made up to a significant proportion of total visitors 58.6 percent on bacardi.com, 47.4 percent on skyy.com, and 34 percent on budlight.com. That's no surprise given that any teenager can bypass the ineffective age restriction and these sites by entering a 21+ date of birth.

The link between booze advertising, underage drinking and the progression to alcoholism, all wrapped in a huge emotional and economic price tag to American society, has been proven "study after study". Instead of feeding the media frenzy about sexual predators on the internt, perhaps we should be spending our time worrying about something that really kills American teens - underage drinking. (Patrick Moore)

THE END