29 January 2009
Super Bowl, commercial-free, at Islamic Center
Some 250 teenage boys will pile onto the carpet of the Islamic Center of Passaic County on Sunday to catch the Super Bowl on a big screen. But when the much-buzzed-about commercials come on, they won't be watching.
A youth leader manning the projector slaps a piece of paper over the lens, blocking out images the center considers inappropriate, such as beers and bikinis.
"The purpose is to keep them away from bad influences," said Emad Hamdeh, the youth committee director. "The beer commercials show people happy while drinking; that's not reality."
During the self-imposed blackouts, the boy fans don't heckle in protest, said Hamdeh. He uses the breaks to talk about the purpose of life. As in "entertainment is OK, but shouldn't be the purpose of life," he said.
Not much of a football fan himself, Hamdeh said the boys have never had to stop in the middle of an exciting play to perform their obligatory daily prayers. If it did happen, however, Hamdeh is sure the imam would say "it's OK to pray by yourself later."
— Sachi Fujimori
11:25 Posted in UNITED STATES | Permalink | Comments (1) | 
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How stupid is that..."locking out images the center considers inappropriate, such as beers and bikinis...." dumbest thing I've heard in a while. Why watch the Game? man, these people are getting worse.
Posted by: Zack Bolt | 29 January 2009
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