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Showkat
02-23-2007, 11:56 AM
Fashion - the God of the youth

One of the most pressing concerns for a lot of Muslim youth today is the role fashion plays in their lives. Far from being dictated by the laws of Allah, many of us are instead slaves to fashion, an addiction that has the power to ruin lives and our changes of winning the ultimate battle to gain entry to paradise. Brother Showkot Ali discusses this idea in this month's fantastic feature...

Clothing, we all have to wear something, even though on occasions we would prefer to wear as little as possible especially when the weather is very hot, which for the UK is a rarity. Some people would prefer if we wore nothing and went back to nature, which they re-create in nudist colonies, some even go topless when they sunbath and there are beaches reserved exclusively for that purpose.

Many of us whose countries of origins are in the Indian sub-continent understand the dilemma of having to buy two different wardrobes for each country, Summer clothes for holidays abroad and winter clothes for life in the west. The other problem we face is that clothes bought in the west can be worn over there and regarded as being trendy and cool. While clothes bought from back home are considered backwards and out of fashion when worn in the west.

So this thing called fashion has now cropped up and we need to understand what it is and how it affects us, I say us because it affects me as well.

In the west unlike abroad you have to buy your clothes from a shop, whereas in Pakistan or Bangladesh you can actually have your clothes made for u, such as shirts, trousers etc after all the labour is cheap and we are all millionaires once we times our pounds or dollars by 120 etc. Also if you wear any clothes made in the west you are regarded as being trendy and in some remote villages and areas you can actually be regarded as a trend setter with your western clothes. Someone told I met when I was in Bangladesh that youth used to wear a sheet wrapped around them called the longhi, but since the many visits by Londonies (us westerners ) now they all wear tight jeans or trousers especially when they visit the town otherwise they will be regarded as village bumpkins and looked down upon.

But in the west you are very conscious about what you wear, we often hear about this thing called " In " and " Out " in relation to clothes and we are all very careful to be in and not out, coz the consequences are horrific, worse than Jade Goodey on a bad day. Newspapers and magazines have sections where these things are discussed at great length.

So in order to be in we need to carefully and diligently follow and observe what the latest top model, actress and singer is wearing, for boys its what the top footballer, actor, sportsman, or singer is wearing.

It's not just about wearing nice clothes and looking hot but also the label and brand name is also very important. So brands like Nike, Adidas, Prada, Fila, Nokia Is the in thing but they come at a price which is beyond most of the youth's budget. So what to do if you don't have rich parents? Getting a job and doing things on the side, illegal things like selling copied cds, computer games etc help to raise the funds for an expensive past time of keeping in with fashion which is worse than a drug or alcohol addiction. For some petty crime is the answer mugging younger kids, extorting money, shop lifting, selling drugs and stolen mobiles, and car stereos is the answer.

It's funny and sad that even inside the masjid shoe racks have signs telling us not to bring expensive trainers to the masjid for fear that they might be stolen and to keep valuables safe. SubhanAllah if we are not safe from theft inside the houses of Allah then where are we safe? And it does happen. I once had a pair of new shoes stolen from one masjid and I'm not insinuating that it was the people praying there who did it. Someone told me that back home there are people who take an old pair of sandals when they go to pray but when they leave they take the most expensive and latest pair with them. A friend came up with an idea to prevent shoes and sandals from being stolen, leave one pair in one rack and the other pair in another rack, thieves will not steal one shoe or sandal, it's the matching pair they seek.I actually tried this and it works.

So this fashion craze amongst the youth does lead many to crime in order to feed this expensive habit and conform to society after all who wants to be viewed by friends and peers as being the sad person who buys his clothes form jumble sales and second hand shops or even Tescos or the market.

For some who cant keep up or afford the latest gear fakes have become a very big growth area, where you can buy what your mates are wearing plus the label for a fraction of the price and even the experts cannot tell a fake from the real thing.

This is illegal but the principle if "it's not hurting anyone then what's wrong with it applies here". At school I had a mate who used to sell labels which he cut out from old clothes and sell them to people to sew onto their cheap clothes and thus giving the illusion that they were the latest gear, very sad I know, just goes to show the extremes people are willing to go to in order to please people and fit in.

Oh, we Muslims really enjoy our shopping trips back home, buying the latest dvds, cds, computer games, and of course clothes, most of which we see in the high street shops are in fact made in sweatshops of the 3rd world.

So in most cases we come back with not just the mosquito bites, weight loss due to diarrhea and married to our cousins but also, looking trendier then when we went a great advertisement for our countries of origin.

The advertising industry spends billions every year to advertise their brand names and wares on football shirts, massive billboards, films, commercials and anywhere else one chooses not to look. They are everywhere and you can't escape even if you wanted to.

All of this creates the want and desire to buy thing which we don't really need but are in fashion, everyone is wearing it, and it does look nice. There has been many a time I bought things from just window shopping which looked nice. I fooled myself into thinking I can wear it later and save money in the process.

For the rest please click
http://www.7cgen.com/index.php?showtopic=7717
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