Adieu, Pikachu!

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Adieu, Pikachu!
Arsalan
03/26/01 at 22:57:08
Adieu, Pikachu
Saudi Issues Fatwa Against Pokémon

March 26 — They've been called baffling, time-consuming, even
"psychologically unhealthy" for children, but now, there's a new charge
levied against Pokémon games and cards: un-Islamic.


Saudi Arabian authorities have decreed that there's no place for the
imaginary, superpowered creatures that make up the Pokémon universe in the
Islamic state. The country's highest religious authority issued a fatwa
against Pokémon cards and games.
Accusing the immensely popular game of "possessing the minds" of children
while promoting Zionism and gambling, Saudi Arabia's Higher Committee for
Scientific Research and Islamic Law issued the fatwa, or religious verdict,
this weekend.

In a statement aired on Qatar's Al Jazeera TV, Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah
al-Sheik, Saudi Arabia's mufti or high priest, warned Muslim parents to
"beware of this game." He urged parents to prevent their children from
playing with Pokémon cards and games in order to "protect their religion and
manners."

Trouble With the Adult World

This is not the first time Pikachu and his popular band of good and evil
characters have run into trouble with the adult world.

Ever since the Pokémon phenomenon hit the market three years ago, parents,
school authorities and child psychologists have been at a loss to understand
the obsessive hold Pokémon games have had over children.

Bans against the Pokémon cards and games stretch across many schools in the
United States, Britain and Mexico, to name a few. Last year, Turkish
authorities ordered a television channel to stop airing the Pokémon cartoon
series after two children leaped from balconies, allegedly believing they
had superhuman powers. Both children survived.

Not Quite Islamic

But this is the first time the Japanese-born game phenomenon has been banned
for religious reasons.

And it's the boggling array of symbols that has come under attack. Most
Pokémon cards typically have a brightly colored picture of a character along
with geometric symbols corresponding to the fanciful powers it possesses.

For Saudi authorities, the symbols may not be quite as vested with the
special powers they purport to hold, but they believe the symbols possess an
insidious threat.

"Most of the cards figure six-pointed stars, a symbol of international
Zionism and the state of Israel," the mufti said on Al Jazeera .

Other symbols include "crosses, sacred for Christians, triangles significant
for Freemasons and symbols of Japan's Shintoism, which is based on the
belief in more than one god," said the edict from the Higher Committee for
Scientific Research and Islamic Law.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press, a spokesman for
the Tokyo-based Nintendo denied Poké mon merchandise sported religious
symbols.

The Pokémon phenomenon was born as a Nintendo video game in Japan three
years ago. Software developers drew from Manga, the Japanese comic
tradition, to come up with a cast of 151 characters, each possessed of good
or evil powers.

It quickly expanded into trading cards and other merchandise that has become
a multibillion-dollar enterprise that is enormously popular around the
world.

Popular in the Gulf

Another concern among Saudi authorities is the fear that the craze might
involve gambling, which is forbidden under Islamic law. Pokémon has evolved
into a complex card game that requires children to trade cards based on a
boggling calculation of points.

"Pokémon has possessed the minds of a large chunk of our students,
captivated their hearts and became their preoccupation," the edict read.
"[They] spend all their money to buy the cards and compete with each other
to win more."

For Pokemon players, the ultimate goal is to win as many cards as possible,
but this can only be achieved after juggling a cast of 151 characters
through a complicated structure of points that can best be achieved by
clever trading.

The Pokémon craze has come to grip the Arab world. On March 22, Pokémon
Live, a stage production based on the world of Pokémon played to packed
audiences during a shopping festival in the Unites Arab Emirates' capital of
Dubai.

Across the Gulf, merchandise, not always produced by Nintendo affiliates,
sport Pokémon characters.

A Pokemon official told The Associated Press that the lack of licensed sales
outlets or representatives in Saudi Arabia made it difficult to get
information on Pokémon's reach in the Gulf state.

NS
Re: Adieu, Pikachu!
Kathy
03/27/01 at 08:14:31
Next ban will be Power Rangers, Batman, Spiderman, Superman...
He-man, X-man, Ninja Turtles would have been too.
Re: Adieu, Pikachu!
PacificBreeze
03/27/01 at 15:56:24
yaay! about time! thumbs down to the lame pikachu craze! even adults have fallen victim to it! (roll eyes)
Re: Adieu, Pikachu!
meraj
03/27/01 at 17:42:07
slm,

ok i understand the reasoning here, but arent there tons of other more important things to issue fatwas for rather than a childrens cartoon ??? or plenty of other things to address like the corruption in saudi arabia ??? or is this just another story being blown out of proportion by the media ??? oh the humanity! ;-D
Re: Adieu, Pikachu!
Saleema
03/27/01 at 19:16:39
Assalam ualykum,

As soon as the scholars in Saudi start issuing fatwas on the corruption in Saudi, the torturing of political prisoners, on how monarchy is haram and you will have no more scholars left in Saudi. They'd all be dead (God forbid) or they'd all be sitting in jail. and the Sauid people will be left with no one to guide them.

wassalm
Re: Adieu, Pikachu!
PacificBreeze
03/29/01 at 00:52:15
salaams,
aren't there already 'millions' of fatwas pertaining to so many different issues? so...why can't there be one regarding the insane pikachu craze? :P esp if it's a current event issue? and something seen as harmful or whatever...? relevant to the ppl and affecting their kiddos..? :)
besides...there have been "advices" given to the kingdom by the shaykhs..
wa salaams


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