[escepticos] Fw: Japanese Jewish conspiracy?

["planetario" <planetario@...>]

LEEDLO que no tiene desperdicio!!!
Saludos

javier
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Steele" <ws21 en cornell.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 2:11 AM
Subject: Japanese Jewish conspiracy?


> Not totally in our territory, but definitely good for a laugh:
>
>
>
>
> Arabs See Jewish Conspiracy in Pokemon
> Religion: Several nations have banned the toys, saying they promote
> anti-Islamic behavior.
>
> By MICHAEL SLACKMAN, Times Staff Writer
>
>      CAIRO--Eight-year-old Abdel Mohsen Medwahi lived for Pokemon. Pokemon
> trading cards. Pokemon comic books. Pokemon clothing. Pokemon toys.
> Everything and anything Pokemon.
>      So it stunned his father, Omar, when the boy solemnly reported the
> troubling news he had just heard from friends: " 'Pokemon' means 'There is
> no God in the universe.' "
>      As a faithful Muslim in Saudi Arabia, a devoutly Muslim country, Omar
> Medwahi decided to check up on the seemingly harmless make-believe
> creatures. He called the local Pokemon distributor, who reassured him that
> Pokemon was short for "pocket monster" and had no religious connotation.
>      And that would have been the end of it in the Medwahi household. But
the
> rumor took hold, and spread, until Saudi Arabia's top religious authority
> issued an outright ban, saying Pokemon promotes anti-Islamic behavior--and
> is suspiciously Jewish. Pokemon was stripped from store shelves, cartons
> arriving at local ports were turned away, orders were canceled, and
schools
> set up collection points to turn in clothing decorated with Pokemon
figures.
>      Saudi Arabia's response may seem extreme, but its outrage is hardly
> unique. Pokemon has become a target of religious leaders throughout the
Arab
> world who charge that the game promotes theories of evolution, encourages
> gambling and, at its core, is part of a Jewish conspiracy aimed at turning
> children away from Islam.
>       Despite denials of an anti-Islam bias from Nintendo, the Japanese
> manufacturer of the cards and electronic games, Muslim leaders in Oman,
> Qatar, Dubai, Jordan and Egypt have also said Pokemon is religiously
> unacceptable. Japanese embassies throughout the region have received
> inquiries from parents and officials who had heard that Pokemon was
Japanese
> for "I am a Jew."
>       That the issue has erupted into a firestorm in the Arab world tells
> much about the climate in the region, where tensions between Arabs and
Jews
> are at least as bad as they have ever been, where traditional Arab
> governments are increasingly worried about cultural assimilation with the
> West and where rumor is often more powerful than reality.
>       The Pokemon issue has its roots in the same frustrations experienced
by
> parents everywhere. Children became obsessed with the game, taking the
> trading cards to school, staying glued to the television program,
pestering
> parents to purchase Pokemon items. But religious faith is so central to
> everyday life here that social issues automatically become filtered
through
> the religious establishment.
>       And while there are many who shrug off the conspiracy theories as
> ludicrous, in this climate of heightened tensions, no one has stood up and
> said so.
>       Instead, it is the hard-liners--some with certain political and
> religious agendas--who have defined the tenor of the public debate.
>
>       'A Jewish Plan to Corrupt the Mind'
>       "It has been proven that this toy is part of a Jewish plan to
corrupt
> the mind of our young generation because it alludes to blasphemous
thinking,
> it mocks our God and our moral values and is therefore extremely dangerous
> for our youth," said Sheik Abdel Monem abu Zent, a hard-liner and former
> member of parliament in Jordan who has helped stir up discontent, although
> he acknowledges that he is not familiar with the game.
>       Mohammed abu Laila, an academic and preacher based at Al Azhar
> University, the prestigious seat of Islamic learning in Cairo, said the
> community's core objection to the game is that it denigrates God. "From
the
> parents' point of view, this game is abusive to Allah," he said. "The
> characters are insulting to God or spreading atheist ideas or nonreligious
> ideas."
>       But he said that while he has no proof of its validity, he has
heard,
> and many parents believe, that characters' names are code words for
> anti-Islamic terms--such as "Be a Jew."
>       The decibel level of the Pokemon debate has raised concerns within
the
> Jewish community in the United States.
>       "When you start saying, 'The Jews are manipulating children's minds,
> getting them to gamble, feeding them all kinds of unacceptable behavior,'
> that is scary. And when it comes wrapped in fatwas, as God's truth, this
is
> God's word, then it becomes a lot scarier," said Abraham Foxman, national
> director of the Anti-Defamation League. "It starts in one place, and all
of
> a sudden it has a life."
>       Pokemon's life began innocently enough in Japan in 1995 as a video
> game, with few people predicting its success. There are 150 brightly
colored
> characters in the original Pokemon, each a mini-monster with the potential
> to transform into a more powerful creature. When the game traveled to the
> United States, Nintendo spun off trading cards, which set off a frenzy
among
> children eager to collect all of the characters in all their forms.
>       By the time its popularity peaked in the U.S. in 1999, Pokemon was a
> multimedia phenomenon, with movies and television shows, clothing and toy
> lines, producing sales in the billions of dollars.
>       But for all its success in the U.S., Nintendo had not marketed
Pokemon
> in the Arab world until about a year ago, said Beth Llewelyn, director of
> public relations for Nintendo of America, based in Seattle.
>       Llewelyn said Nintendo's video games had never been marketed in the
> Arab world, so there was no natural path for introducing Pokemon.
> Eventually, Nintendo issued licenses to vendors interested in the product,
> and it took off. But Pokemon's success became a headache for many parents
in
> the region.
>       "My son is a very devout collector of the Pokemon cards, and he used
to
> drive us all crazy," said Randa Hassan, a schoolteacher in Amman, the
> Jordanian capital. "It was the talk of society for quite a long time.
> Everyone was talking about it."
>       "Pokemon Virus" was the headline of an article that appeared in
March
> in Modern Family, a magazine published in the United Arab Emirates. The
> article painted Pokemon as a dangerous waste of time and an expensive drag
> on parents.
>       "It is the burden of this age which has hit tens of millions of
> children worldwide," the article said. "As with other Third World
children,
> our children have found in Pokemon an opportunity to lose themselves in
it.
> They neglected their studies, prevented their parents from getting close
to
> the television to change the channel which was broadcasting a Pokemon
> series."
>       About a month ago, the agitation against Pokemon took on a different
> cast. Parents, teachers, clerics and others said that a small, unsigned
> flier began showing up in schools in Saudi Arabia and other countries
> charging that Pokemon denigrated God--although there are many different
> accounts of what the flier actually said.
>       "The leaflet, written in poor Arabic, claimed that Pikachu, the most
> popular and powerful character, meant 'I am Jewish' in Japanese," said
Abdel
> Rahman Mtowah, editor of the Saudi-based Al Sharq al Awsat newspaper.
>       In a fatwa, or religious edict, Saudi Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah
al
> Sheik urged "all Muslims to beware of this game and prevent their children
> from playing it so as to protect their religion and manners." He added
that
> most of the cards "figure six-pointed stars, a symbol of international
> Zionism and the state of Israel."
>       A few weeks later, in early April, a fatwa was issued in Dubai
saying
> that Pokemon "clearly contains gambling" and that the game "is based on
the
> theory of evolution, a Jewish-Darwinist theory, that conflicts with the
> truth about humans and with Islamic principles."
>       The issue boiled over in Jordan this month as well. In a statement
in
> an Amman newspaper, the Syriac Orthodox Christian Church denied
allegations
> that Pokemon and other character names were rooted in the ancient Syriac
> language and were insulting to Islam. Church officials had become alarmed
> when they received an anonymous fax making the allegations.
>       In Egypt, a recent article in the weekly newspaper Al Osbou said in
> part: "Some schools distributed leaflets to students including information
> that was taken from a local newspaper that assures that Pokemon is a
Jewish
> company and that the names of Pokemon characters all are blasphemous."
>
>       Several Products Have Seen Controversy
>       There have been many instances of products, or companies, falling
prey
> to rumor campaigns. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority tried to tag the
> Teletubby character Tinky Winky as gay because it is purple--the gay pride
> color--carries a bag and has an antenna shaped like a triangle--the gay
> pride symbol. For years, Procter & Gamble has battled the rumor that its
> 132-year-old trademark, which shows the Man in the Moon and 13 stars
> representing the original colonies, is a symbol of Satanism and devil
> worship.
>       Pokemon itself is not new to controversy. In 1999, Nintendo
> discontinued a card bearing an image similar to a swastika after the
> Anti-Defamation League complained. It also has been criticized in Mexico
by
> a Christian church, which called it "demonic." In Malaysia, clerics
> reportedly are studying the religious aspects of the video game, and many
> schools in the United States have banned Pokemon from classrooms.
>       But in the Middle East, it is more than the viability of a product
that
> is at stake; such charges serve to widen the chasm between Arab and Jew.
>       "You know the situation, the chaos and problems between the
> Palestinians and the Jews," said Abu Laila, the academic and preacher
based
> at Al Azhar in Cairo. "The situation is so sensitive."
>
> * * *
>       Pokemon: An Empire at a Glance
>       The name: Pokemon, short for "pocket monster," is the
>       name given to the many creatures found in a series
>       of Nintendo video games as well as related trading cards and
cartoons.
> * * *
>       The characters: There are 250 types of Pokemon, and each has a name,
> such as Pikachu or Charmander.
> * * *
>       The impact: It is estimated that the Pokemon craze, which reached
its
> peak in the U.S. in 1999, has given rise to a $1-billion industry.
> * * *
>       Ranwa Yehia of The Times' Cairo Bureau contributed to this report.
> --
>
> Bill Steele
> ws21 en cornell.edu
>