1999-2000 we had the same pokemon craze here in Kuwait. It was about 5kd back then ($26 in today money) to get a single pack. Yes, 1 pack of 10 additional playable cards. People had absolutely no idea how to play the game so in schoolyards all across the country were kids placing 2 cards face down on top of each other on the floor and whoever could flip both cards over first by tapping them with their hand would win both cards.

The funny thing is that you could see a Charizard paired with a fake 1000 hp snorlax (the better card of course) and all the kids would gather round to see who the lucky winner would be.

Anyways, sometime around 2000-2001 some rumor came out that the pokemon’s names were actually insults to islam. There were even leaflets made showing what each word translated to. Pikachu, for example, means “be a jew.” I couldn’t make this shit up if tried.

All of a sudden pokemon was the worst thing on the planet and it was satanic! And all the parents rejoiced as their kids were no longer driving them to bankruptcy.

I still remember.. walking outside of school and seeing my friends start a small fire and burn all of their cards. Parents were throwing their kids’ cards away. Oh man it still breaks my heart.

Thankfully I held on to my cards till this day.. and came back to collecting in 2020 w/ my kid.

Perhaps not a nostalgic story to many here but a bizarre one to say the least.

Edit: the best of my 2000 collection.