Thursday, September 07, 2006

how funny is this...

Pinocchio and friends converted to Islam

Malcolm Moore in Antalya (Filed: 31/08/2006)

Pinocchio, Tom Sawyer and other characters have been converted to Islam in new versions of 100 classic stories on the Turkish school curriculum. "Give me some bread, for Allah's sake," Pinocchio says to Geppetto, his maker, in a book stamped with the crest of the ministry of education. "Thanks be to Allah," the puppet says later.

In The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan is told that he cannot visit Aramis. The reason would surprise the author, Alexandre Dumas. An old woman explains: "He is surrounded by men of religion. He converted to Islam after his illness."

Tom Sawyer may always have shirked his homework, but he is more conscientious in learning his Islamic prayers. He is given a "special treat" for learning the Arabic words. Pollyanna, seen by some as the embodiment of Christian forgiveness, says that she believes in the end of the world as predicted in the Koran. Heidi, the Swiss orphan girl in the tale by Johanna Spyri, is told that praying to Allah will help her to relax.

Several more books have been altered, including La Fontaine's fables and Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. The clumsy insertions by Islamic publishing houses have caused controversy in Turkey, which has been a strongly secular state since the 1920s. Other books contain insults, slang and rude rhymes which mock the president and the prime minister. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is Turkey's first Islamic premier, has called for swift action to be taken against the publishers. The education ministry has threatened to take legal action against any publisher which continues to issue such books. Huseyin Celik, the education minister, said: "If there are slang and swear words, we will sue them for using the ministry logo."

how cool is that lol, we had a family friend who used to tell us all these brilliant fairy tales but with an islamic out look to them so reading this article brought back memories...

i wonder whats next on there list? you know whats really funny, watching the lion king, lilo & stich as well as other cartoons in an egyptian arabic accent, that just makes it even more entertaining?

11 comments:

Anglo-Libyan said...

I have seen some of these DVDs, i thought the ones dubbed with Egytian Arabic are weired and no good for teaching the children.
my children go to a muslim/arabic school in London yet they are not interested in arabic TV or arabic DVDs, its so difficult to get them to watch these but they have no problem watchin Thats so Raven or the Sweet life of Zack & Cody on the Disney channel!

white african said...

i know what you mean anglo, my youngest brother was the same, he loves the english cartoons but would get bored so easily watching any of the arabic ones on arabic t.v,

i loved the smurfs in arabic when i was younger, i did have a problem with arabic school though, i dont know why that is, alot of the kids just dont like going to arabic school and are more mis behaved in arabic school, but can be little angels in english school lol...

lostkitty said...

i dont see why these dvds were made - i reckon these are a waste of time. The reason I think this is because every kid has seen these in English and they are quintessentially English cartoons.
I feel we have enough talent in our Ummah to make bigger and better truly Muslim cartoons and why not?! We are after all 1/5 of the worlds population - somewhere among our computer geek bros/sis' (and we have many!) there are those who are capable of this.
So why not? Why try to copy and not to originate?

white african said...

yep tajnia true, but there has been progress mashallah, have you seen the animation of prophet muhammed's life, thats a start and the quality aint bad either

Hana Agil said...

Quote: "Since you don't since how stupid it is, you must be majorly stupid"

Sorry, what does that mean Ms/Mr articulate intelligent-enough-to-leave-islam?

Perhaps you can be intelligent enough to respect other people's beliefs?

And perhaps you are also intelligent enough to know Turkey, my dear, is NOT an Islamic country. Did you not learn about the secularisation process that took place in your country in 1924? You must have, since you're so intelligent.

white african said...

'First of all,your writing is full of typos. Learn to write right first if you want to write in English.'

your argument is weak from the start istanbulwitch, you base your brilliant comment on the fact that i have spelling errors, maybe because i type fast and dont spell check but who cares, your focusing on something trivial and shame on you, for some one who says 'I am smart person' you have appeared quite the opposite.

every one has the freedom of choice even religion accepts this and calls it freedom of will so for some one who does 'not have a religion' you seem quite oppresive...

NM said...

istanbulwitch...one word

ISSUES!

NATIVE said...

ISSUES indeed!

lostkitty said...

lol i think the witch lived up to their name!
funny

ish said...

"Other books contain insults, slang and rude rhymes which mock the president and the prime minister."

i was almost rolling on the floor laughing at that one!! anyway, very interestin blog you got here, i'll deff visit more regularly!

white african said...

goddess of sorts, i was laughing as well when i came across that article, welcome sis..