You can’t but LOL when you watch the Minions, especially if you sit next to my daughter Maryam (5 years), whose loud laughter adds a lot of juice to the experience. However as a parent, you cannot but reflect on the implicit messages that are being carried out to our youngsters.

I am NOT a conspiracy theorist, and I do not try to overthink and overanalyze things. I am not a book burner and in fact it is very hard these days to “burn” a book, a movie, or an online trend that invades human beings worldwide.

In this article, I will share some of the principles that I could not swallow from the movie. I am not declaring this movie as “banned”, “forbidden”, or “haram“; I do not claim that you will get any sin by watching the Minions (unless there is fear that you may be committing suicide and die out of a heart attack due to continuous laughter )!

 

God and religion: an invention of the human mind

The movie is a spin-off from the famous “Despicable Me” series. In the plot, Kevin, Bob, and Stuart go out in search of their nation’s next “master”. The minions keep on switching between different leaders, from T-rex the Dinosaur to Dracula and Napoleon.

Every time they end up killing their master with their own hand, out of their own stupidity but also because their master is much more stupid. If you ever wonder why Dracula could not celebrate more than 350 birthdays or why the Dinosaurs ceased to exist after thousands of years, it is the minions who put an end to all that!

What bothers me is that there is a clear indication that the minions’ master is a spiritual god in a religious sense. There are rituals and prayers that are offered to welcome any new god.  There is pessimism and desperation whenever the nation is godless, and cheer and joy whenever a new god is found.

This aligns with the claims that religion is a man-made theory and that god is an outcome of human’s imagination due to psychological and emotional needs. “The God Delusion” and the like are not ideas that you find in philosophical books but are penetrating to the minds and hearts of our kids through these movies. Another bothering message pertains to the nature of the minion’s gods that they all have in common: they all have to be evil.

 

God is evil

The minions have a clear idea of how their new god should be like: he/she should be pure evil. This is why they go to a Villain conference to search for the most evil person, who happens to be a “Scarlet Overkill”. They win the contest and get the honor of being her henchmen, only to find out later how evil she is and then start their rebellion against her.

Clearly, the “God is Evil” is not a new concept; what worries me is how the idea is being packaged and transmitted to a generation that is promising to rebel against all other ideologies and beliefs.

I know some may disagree with this article, but unfortunately people define “critical thinking” only when it comes to challenging religion and sacred texts. If you question God or the Qur’an, you are considered liberal and a free thinker. If you question Hollywood and its ideology being preached to the masses, you have a backward mentality full of conspiracies.

 

Mentorship instead of censorship

My simple solution to this mess is: Mentorship instead of censorship! I really want my kids to get any “Halal” entertainment similar to their peers, but I would take this opportunity to open a discussion with them. Some of the discussion starters that can be used with teenagers after watching such movies (please feel free to add to the comments section and benefit others):

– What do you think about the minion’s new master?

– Isn’t it great that we believe in a merciful God who takes care of us?

– Would you be interested in working for this evil master?

– If you were in Stewart’s shoes, how would you handle this situation (your discussion doesn’t have to be all about religion and conspiracy theory  )?