The news about Pokemon being a Jewish product became a trending topic on the Muslim Journal's Fanpage. Four posts titled Pokemon topped the list as the most read posts in mid-July.

Here are some titles of articles that have had many viewers in the last few days on the Muslim Journal website as of 19/7/16:

1. Meaning of Pokemon in Syriac: "I'm Jewish," with 152,269 views by blogger. (Read the article here)
2. Did you know? Pokemon Products Are Jewish Missions, Contains Defamatory Elements of Islam with views reaching 110,028 by blogger. (Read the article here)
3. Game 'Pokemon Go' fever is spreading, this is the positive and negative impact, with viewers reaching 85,707 by blogger. (Read the article here)
4. Meaning of Pikachu in Syriac: "Be a Jew," with 76,887 views by blogger. (Read the article here)

The popularity of the above articles has become the subject of discussion by many netizens, especially social media users such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. The reason is, the article that talks about the relationship between Jews and Pokemon reaps the pros and cons.

A few hours ago there were several electronic letters that entered the Muslim Journal contact, either via Facebook or Email, as we have provided contact information on the Jurnalmuslim.com website.

Some of them asked the validity of the articles mentioned above. There are even some who state that the article is a hoax and the Muslim Journal website is accused of being a slanderer.

The link between Judaism and Pokemon Movies is an old 'issue'

Our team of journalists, Nisyi, is motivated to raise the issue of the relationship between Pokemon and Jews because of the recent boom in Niantic's game product, Pokemon Go. When we clarified his motivation and reason for writing the article, he replied that it was an old issue that was brought up again.

The issue of a link between Jews and Pokemon has existed since the Pokemon movie was broadcast on private televisions, namely in 2001 and was first broadcast by SCTV (Read about Pokemon for the first time airing on private television: wikipedia).

"There were many leaflets about the relationship between Pokemon and Jews that were distributed in several cities when the Pokemon Movie was shown on the screen. Not only Pokemon, but several children's TV series were also included in the content of the leaflets. All of which talked about the existence of Jewish elements in children's cartoon series at the time." Nishi said.

Muslim Journalists never post articles/news unless they include the source

Because the data from the opinion of the relationship between Jews and Pokemon is no longer available. Our journalist, nisyi, tries to retrieve the data through the Internet. And indeed, a lot of writings that talk about the topic of Jews and Pokemon.

Here are some articles that discuss the relationship between Jews and Pokemon:

Article about Pokemon and Jews by Reika on her blog, posted in 2013

Article about Pokemon and Jews by smzblog on his blog, posted in 2008

Article about Pokemon and Jews by Dudung on his website, posted in 2011


It can be seen that the issue between Jews and Pokemon existed in the years before the Pokemon Go game was released.

From here, our journalists take their opinion from an article sourced from the neutralitas.com site. For those who want to know about the neterality.com website profile, please read here.

In full, sources of opinion writing about Pokemon and Jews can be found here.

The pros and cons of the issue of the connection between Jews and Pokemon is also an old issue

In the article about Judaism and Pokemon, there are sensitive matters concerning Religion, especially Islam. That is about the meaning of Pokemon and some of the names of the monsters in the Pokemon TV series.

For example, it is stated that the Syriac meaning of Pokemon is "I am Jewish." Unfortunately, that statement is an opinion, and there are many pros and cons to that meaning.

Among those who dispute this statement is an article quoted by a web developer who is also an Information Technology Division of Bank BTPN Head Office, Dudung, on his website dudung.net, citing the source ia-wutsqo. It was stated that leaflets about the relationship between Jews and Pokemon as well as several children's cartoons were not only spread in Indonesia, but also in Saudi, Jordan, Egypt and several other Middle Eastern regions.

However, it was also mentioned that after being confirmed by a number of linguists, they generally rejected the notion that the word Pokemon and some of the monsters in Pokemon had a relationship with the Syriac language. Which means that the assumptions contained in the leaflet itself are not necessarily true.

Reporting from solo.tribunnews (18/7/16), the LA Times news noted that Nintendo refuted the perception of the connection between Pokemon and Judaism. It is said that Pokemon is actually just an abbreviation of Pocket Monster or pocket monster. Named Pocket Monster because this pokemon has a pocket ball that can be put in a pocket. (Read here)

What is interesting here is that it was informed on the dudung.net and tribune sites that Pokemon shows in several countries, such as Jordan, had attracted the attention of residents and even the local government. Quoted by Dudung, that a number of youths and children in Jordan have carried out mass arson actions against goods containing images of Pokemon. The problem is not only related to the meanings that are not necessarily true, but the Pokemon game has had quite a negative impact on children. The full article can be read here (posted in 2001).

Regardless of the pros and cons of that perception, in this post, the editor of the Muslim Journal will clarify an article about the relationship between Pokemon and Jews by our journalist, Nisyi, a few days ago. That the article is the opinion of several writings in several media, be it leaflets, or other electronic media. Each of these articles has been given a clear source, and is not just a made-up opinion without any reference review.

In this post, we as the editors thank you for the suggestions, input, and constructive criticism submitted through our contact information on the Jurnalmuslim.com site. We will definitely respond to suggestions, input and constructive criticism and are always used as material for evaluation for the Muslim Journal site.

May Allah open the hearts of His servants to be able to receive guidance. Al Haq min rabbika falaa takunanna minal mumtarin, the truth is from your Lord Allah and do not be of those who doubt.