The year was 1992 and it was the first time I had a crush on an animated character. His name was Aladdin, derived from One Thousand and One Nights Middle Eastern folk tales. And although Disney didn’t explicitly state it, I was pretty sure he was Muslim and therefore someone my Pakistani mother would approve of me marrying.

Yes, Aladdin was my first Muslim crush. Honestly, I’m not even sure if he was officially Muslim, but given that the film takes place in the Arab world and the Sultan says the phrase “by Allah!” in the movie (his version of “Oh my God!”) I’m going to continue to make this assumption for the sake of my life story; even though I know ‘Allah’ isn’t a person or being – it’s just the Arabic word for ‘God’ that yes, even Arab Christians use.

Nonetheless, up until Aladdin, I had only crushed on guys I knew my mother would never allow me to be with. All of my crushes were either classmates in my predominantly white elementary school in Fresno, CA, or people I saw on TV– like Zack Morris on Saved By the Bell and Uncle Jesse on Full House. With the release of this Disney movie there was, for the first time, a pop culture icon I could crush on who was mother-approved! Big eyes, a nice smile, and most importantly, perfect hair – what more could a girl ask for? Oh, what’s that? Aladdin is Muslim? Well let’s just go sign the marriage papers now, shall we?!?

As an adult, I now know this is flawed thinking — and no, I’m not talking about the fact you can’t marry a cartoon character, because honestly anything is possible in the 21st century and a wedding between a human and a fictional person seems like a great social media event for live-tweeting. The flaw, rather, lies in the fact that I was so quick to fall in love, simply because Aladdin checked one box: the “good-looking Muslim.”

Who cares if he was homeless and without a job, I was in love, and love is all that matters, right? I had never met anyone like him. All the six-year-old boys I encountered at Islamic Sunday School paled in comparison to this dreamy, adventurous Disney caricature.

Thus began, my love affair with Aladdin. I would watch the movie religiously. I knew all the words. I sang along to all the songs. I was envious of Jasmine – I wanted to be her, not only because she was the apple of Aladdin’s eye, but because she got away with wearing a midriff-baring top, another thing my mother would never allow.

What I didn’t realize then is that because I was obsessed with Aladdin, a charming, smooth-talking guy who is seemingly underrated and hopes to make a better life for himself, I was conditioning myself to be OK with everything Aladdin represented, and in turn conditioning myself to be attracted to guys who were similar in nature.

Yes, Aladdin is the harrowing protagonist and he is the hero as it relates to defeating Jafar. But when you look at the film objectively (i.e. you remove your childhood crush goggles), you can see how Aladdin – like all of us – is a flawed human being. Namely...he lies, and he’s OK with it — until he gets caught.

The thing about lying is, if you have a certain moral code, you’ll feel guilty every time you speak a falsity – whether or not you ever get caught. The thing about Aladdin is, the film did not showcase any element of guilt whenever the title character spoke anything less than the truth.

Which can only mean one thing: Aladdin didn’t give a f*** that he was lying. As long as the lie helped him with his goal (i.e. getting the princess), he was OK with it. In fact, he only showed guilt and expressed any sort of apology AFTER he was caught.