The Ruling on Acting in Summer Camps

Question:
Honorable Shaykh! You know how much good there is in summer camps, but they include acting, which is said to be one of the means of calling people to Allah and correcting some ideas among the youth. What is the ruling on that?

Answer:
Summer camps contain no doubt a great deal of good, and they are considered a link in the chain of study. A link in the chain of study. They also provide an opportunity for Muslim youth to learn.
But we do not introduce things into them that will ruin them. We do not introduce nonsense into them that will ruin them and spoil their purpose. Games, amusement, play, acting, and songs—none of these are in the interest of the students or in the interest of the children of Muslims; rather, they are distracting matters and time-wasters.
We teach them tawhid (the oneness of Allah), we teach them fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), we teach them the Qur'an. The most important thing is that we have them memorize the Qur'an, we protect them with the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), we teach them arithmetic and handwriting, we teach them the trades and crafts that are beneficial to them and to their society. All of these are useful matters, whether they are religious or worldly, or even Arabic, such as the study of grammar and language. All of these are useful.
As for this nonsense, acting. We do not want them to go to theaters. We teach them, and then they go to theaters to learn acting so that they can establish theaters, or songs so that they can become singers and vocalists in the future. We warn them against this. We want good for them and we want their upbringing. We want beneficial education for them.
As for teaching them to become singers or teaching them to become actors. No. This is not permissible. Do we warn against these deceptions and these matters that have no benefit for us, but rather waste our time and also pollute the ideas of our youth? Yes.