Hindus give worldwide boycott call against Sony PlayStation products

[wraggster]

Heres a press release that will no doubt amuse some and may offend too:

Perturbed over Sony’s “Hanuman: Boy Warrior” videogame and further vexed by stiff-necked attitude of Sony officials, various Hindu groups have given worldwide boycott call against Sony PlayStation products.

Spearheaded by acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who said that Hanuman game “trivializes the highly revered deity of Hinduism”; various Hindu groups/leaders who have jointly given the boycott call include Bhavna Shinde of Forum for Hindu Awakening in USA; Vamsi Krishna of Sanatan Sanstha of Australia; Hindu Janajagruti Samiti headquartered in India; Jawahar L. Khurana, Chairperson of Hindu Alliance of India; Lila D. Sharma, President of India Heritage Panel; Dharam Loonaa, Executive Director of Universal Society of Hinduism; and Rakesh Nagpal, General Secretary of Shri Ramayan Pracharini Sabha. Besides Hindus, they have also urged other religious/spiritual people/groups of the world also not to buy Sony PlayStation products.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, in an earlier statement, said that in a video game set-up, the player controlled the destiny of Lord Hanuman while in reality the believers put the destinies of themselves in the hands of their deities. Zed further said that immature handling of the issue by Sony, which is said to be a socially responsible and ethical corporation, saddened them. He also urged Sony to create a high-level check system so that denigrations like this did not happen in the future.

According to Shinde, Hindu leaders communicated their displeasure to Sony and tried to resolve the issue through discussions, but callous attitude of Sony officials frustrated their efforts, leaving them with no other alternative except the boycott call. She said that they would re-evaluate their protest movement in the near future and look into requesting the major wholesalers and retailers of videogames, in India and wherever else this videogame was launched, not to carry it. They would also consider boycotting all Sony products during this re-evaluation.

Hindus have been demanding the withdrawal of recently launched Sony PlayStation2 video game “Hanuman: Boy Warrior” and apology from Sony for creating it by May 21, arguing that reimagining Hindu scriptures and deities for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees. Controlling and manipulating Lord Hanuman with a joystick/ button/keyboard/mouse was denigration.

Lord Hanuman is greatly revered and his worship is very popular among Hindus and there are numerous temples dedicated to him. Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents. Sony, with Howard Stringer as Chairman and headquartered in Tokyo, is one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world.

[sorceror]

I'm slightly conflicted about this. On the one hand, religions don't get to insist that others have to respect or follow their beliefs. I wanna draw a cartoon of Mohammed, too bad. I wanna call a Communion wafer "just a cracker", too bad. I wanna make a video game about a figure from the Hindu pantheon, too bad.

On the other hand, there's no need to be deliberately rude about things. What if they'd done a game based on, I dunno, Gilgamesh or something? Plenty of old religions or cults that don't have any modern adherents to offend.

The Hindu activists are well within their rights to boycott Sony stuff... but I don't have to abide by it. I guess that's where I'll have to leave it.

[Mister Klownes]

Ditto on everything mentioned above, but I think I'll take it a step in the smarmy direction and say:

If someone made a game called the Jesus/Buddha/Moses/Mohammad/Etc. Adventures, I'd play it, assuming it was a good game. Granted, It's impossible to offend someone religiously when they follow no religion...but still. I'd like to believe there are people who can see value in a more interactive homage to a religious hero than the rigid reverence we're always expected to maintain.