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Saudi Arabia Revives 15-Year-Old Ban On 'Zionism-Promoting' Pokemon (timesofisrael.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the unaligned-ideals dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Clerics in Saudi Arabia have renewed a 15-year-old ban on Pokemon, following the release of the highly popular augmented reality version of the game, Pokemon Go. According to Reuters, the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars reaffirmed a 2001 ban on the game. The Times of Israel reports: "While fatwa no. 21,758 makes no mention of the latest iteration of [the] game, it does list many sinful aspects of Pokemon. Firstly, the game is seen as a form of gambling, which itself is forbidden. Secondly, it encourages belief in Darwin's theory of evolution, and thirdly, the fatwa says, the symbols used in the game promote the Shinto religion of Japan, Christianity, Freemasonry and 'global Zionism.'" The ruling says: "The symbols and logos of devious religions and organizations are used [including] the six-pointed star: You rarely find a card that does not contain such a star. It is associated with Judaism, the logo and sign of the State of Israel, and the first symbol of the Masonry organizations in the world." Pokemon Go has been such a success that it has already doubled Nintendo's stock price after launching just two weeks ago.

23 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. Build a wall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Keep inviting Shariah advocates in and we'll get legislation like this soon enough

    1. Re:Build a wall by stealth_finger · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Which Christian country enact this papal declaration? Right none. Troll harder, muslim apologist.

      Vatican City?

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  2. They sound completely insane by ZorinLynx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I read this and I'm just shaking my head at how incredibly ludicrous every word in that statement was.

    If it weren't for the fact that millions of people live under the oppression of this sort of thinking, it would actually be funny.

    When will these people finally join the 21st century and stop basing their entire lives around this bullshit?

    1. Re:They sound completely insane by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They can't join the 21st century because their entire culture is rooted in bronze age bullshit.

      They should have been cut off from modern society completely and eventually forgotten.

      But of course, when we are beholden to petroleum companies, the sick and degenerate middle east gets a seat at the table.

    2. Re:They sound completely insane by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      They are existing in the 21st century. They are a product of our existing world political order. Saying it's the 21st century has as much logical weight as saying that it's Thursday. Please come up with an argument that engages the [actual] issues with the competing worldview rather than exclaiming that we've assigned a certain number to the present year.

    3. Re:They sound completely insane by Copid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Here's something I've often wondered: If you have a custom of throwing people who don't believe in the volcano god into a volcano, how long will it take after everybody stops believing in the volcano god for somebody to ask, "So do we all really still believe this stuff?"

      I'm thinking it might be a pretty long time.

      --
      An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
    4. Re:They sound completely insane by nikkipolya · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Very true. It is the fear of the consequences of non-conformity that makes people conform. And seeing bright people conforming, turns the dumb into fanatics. Its a vicious loop.
      I would have modded you up, but I do not have mod points.

    5. Re:They sound completely insane by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You'll find some folks in just about every religion that are wound waaay too tight and see the devil in everything. The rest enjoy their games and movies like everyone else.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    6. Re:They sound completely insane by abies · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not really - Christianity is evolving. It basically loses edge as time is passing, becoming 'lukewarm' religion. Look at Church of England as extreme case of that, but same route can be seen in most subsects. On the other hand, Islam is frozen in time, actively fighting any kinds of changes (given what happened over very trivial differences between Shia and Sunni, you should not expect any bigger changes for next few thousand years).

    7. Re:They sound completely insane by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Say it with me: Islam is not a race.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    8. Re:They sound completely insane by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 3, Insightful

      False equivalencies. What percentage of global Christianity believes that Pokemon is evil versus what percentage of global Islam is under Sharia law and/or believes that Pokemon is evil AND that women are second class citizens?

      By the way... you know that when you use words like "Murica" you automatically lose any argument with an adult, right?

    9. Re:They sound completely insane by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's not so much that Christianity is losing its "edge" so much as that it's lost its political influence. Go take a look, there are lots of nutjobs in Christian churches that will talk about how Pokemon is demonic/evil/etc (or Harry Potter, or what have you). The main difference is that these people don't have a direct pipeline to getting laws passed as a result. They used to, back in the old days, but over time they've increasingly lost that power - first the formal link based on direct power, and then later the informal links based on influence.

      But don't think for a minute that they don't want that power back.

  3. I'm pretty sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    if the Middle East had their way, we would still be in the Dark Ages.

    We're gonna ban Pokemon, but it's cool to beat your wife or jail folks for "insulting" Islam and other ludicrous nonsense.

    How can a modern World leader, look them in the eye and not just bust out laughing ? How on Earth does anyone take them seriously on anything ?

    Unless they pull off a miracle, the entire Middle East will be instantly forgotten once our reliance on oil dries up.

    They really have nothing to fall back on.

  4. Re:Sorry, couldn't resist by murdocj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Funny thing, if the Arabs states had just let Israel be instead of trying to crush it in 1948, Israel would be a tiny bit of land that they wouldn't even notice. Instead, the whole "drive the Jews into the sea" thing kind of backfired on them.

  5. Turkey by Dan+East · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is where Turkey is headed now too, after the staged coup which was used as justification for purging tens of thousands of secular leaning judges, teachers and soldiers.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  6. Remind me again by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    why we're friends with these guys? Oh yeah, cheap oil for our cars. Well I guess it's either that or the bus...

    --
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  7. Re:Huge Mischaracterization - Not promoting Darwan by johannesg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow, such insanity. Clearly Pokémon Go is promoting a Lamarckian Theory of Evolution, not a Darwinian Theory of Evolution.

    We are talking about a people who don't build any buildings with triangles in them, just because the triangle is a symbol of Christianity (it represents the father, son, and holy spirit). And who ban words with the letter 'X' in them because the X resembles a cross. I don't see why we should have any expectation of rationality out of that bunch.

  8. They are by Chrisq · · Score: 1, Insightful

    They sound completely insane

    Haven't you noticed, muslims are often completely insane? So frequently one will attack people, saying that it is for Islam, but then everyone will say "it wasn't really, he's just insane". And there's the way that they go around murdering people n completely different countries just because someone drew a picture, made a film, or wrote a book they didn't like.

  9. Religion is a mental disorder by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At least it would fulfill every criteria in the ICD-10 F22.0 definition of delusion if religions were not explicitly exempt. Because, well, what's the difference between a delusion and a religion except the fact that a lot of people have the same delusion?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Religion is a mental disorder by dskoll · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not only is religion a mental disorder, it has the dubious distinction of being a communicable mental illness, which is something very rare indeed.

    2. Re:Religion is a mental disorder by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That works for all the other delusions as well. Religions, cults, conspiracy theories, SJWs... same shit, different name.

      In the end, they all claim to have the moral high ground, they claim they have the truth, they have zero problem with internal contradictions and anyone who dares to tell them that they're crazy, and offer logical, conclusive examples on why they are, are heretics/shills/whatever.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:Religion is a mental disorder by jenningsthecat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not only is religion a mental disorder, it has the dubious distinction of being a communicable mental illness, which is something very rare indeed.

      I'm not sure that communicable mental illnesses are so rare. Belief in things like racial superiority and class superiority, along with the various forms of servitude or outright slavery they engender, are also communicable 'social diseases'. Then there are various irrational 'fad' beliefs, such as those of anti-vaxxers. Hell, advertising and marketing are the commercial versions of mental disease propagation. (It's interesting that 'propaganda' and 'propagate' share a common Latin root).

      Because we humans can communicate with a great degree of specificity and detail, various forms of mental, emotional, and intellectual health deficits are communicable. Language is a mental disease vector.

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  10. Re:There but for the grace of... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because a random person on the internet equates to a national government?

    We have random people on the Internet running for president. It's not that big a leap.

    Think about the news in the past week. We had a Duck Dynasty guy speaking at the national convention of a major political party. We had another speaker at that convention claim that the opponent is "serving Lucifer". The clock is running on our moral superiority.

    http://www.dailysquat.com/wp-c...

    https://twitter.com/JasonHavey...

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.