I got an idea today, and wanted to share.  I've been wanting to send items for the kids, something that I can send a lot of, but wouldn't be too expensive.  I though of learning to knit scarfs and beannie hats (my sister does them out of an army colors yarn) But that's not until the winter.

I came across a book today that shows how to make animals from socks and gloves, and thought of Sock Monkeys. They are inexpensive to make, and I can make them as I watch TV.  I read a previouse post about not sending dogs or pigs.  Are monkeys okay?

UH OH....NO DOGS????

Pigs I figured out but I hadn't thought about dogs....

Now I'm wondering about monkeys...   Surely monkeys are fine...

Reta

My mom and I were also thinking about doing some of those little "boo-boo bunnies" that you make out of wash cloths.  You put a reusable ice cube in their tummy.  We thought the hospitals that took care of the kids could use them.

I think monkeys would be okay.  All I've ever heard about is dogs and pigs...

After we had sent probably close to a dozen dogs in various forms to Iraq, we were told that they considered both pigs and dogs to be "unclean" according to their religion.  A lot of ours went north, though, and I don't know if they have the same beliefs or not.

It seems that I remember several decades ago there was a large (almost life-sized) sock monkey that did take a lot of materials to make, but after a while, I saw a smaller version of it that didn't involve so much material.

Gran

Reta,

When you first mentioned, I went and tried to find information on the web.  I could not find anything.  Today, I was looking back to reference information I had found about something else and found this about Islam and monkeys:

"The Quran, the holy book of Muslims mentions that people who broke the Sabbath were turned into monkeys as a punishment, though this is apparently figurative."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey  [the reference in the Qu'ran was cited but I could not get it to copy properly here.]

While it is indicated that the reference is "figurative" and there is no direct mention (that I could find on any of the 20 or so web sites I checked) indicating that monkeys are "unclean", they seems to have a negative connotation.  I will try to see if there is a "real" person I can ask somewhere and let you know.

It seems we need a crash course in Muslim's traditions.

Gran

I've found various references to cats being good (all the way from housecats to lions), and one reference to bees being very clean.  Horses seem to be highly revered by the Turkmen in the north, and given this history of horses in the Middle East, I'd say they're a pretty safe bet overall.

Cat toys and horse toys of the right size and *squish* to be taken on missions are rather plentiful.  However, small stuffed bees that don't buzz when squeezed seem rather rare.  I think a buzzing toy would be a bad thing.

I think sock monkeys, as well as simple hand puppets would be ideal hand-outs for our soldiers, and inexpensive to make.  Although they are something I enjoyed as a child, do kids today, especially middle eastern children, still enjoy playing with them? 

My only knowledge comes from one single Soldier posting that they wanted stuffed animals to hand out, but not dogs or pigs because they were considered to be unclean.  I saw this after I had sent to another request and included a couple of Miss Piggys and a multitude of various dogs.

Gran

There are roughly a bajillion dogs in Iraq...lol. Some of those are pets (and many are strays).

This site gives some interesting information about dogs in Islam: http://www.islamicconcern.com/dogs.asp

So, it sounds like there is some variation of opinion among Muslims, but the "safe" route would be not to give toy dogs or pigs as gifts.

OK I asked a friend of mine that is muslim and she said that it would NOT be a problem to send sock monkeys. But no dog or pigs anything else would be fine. 

Becky