Saudi Arabia restores ban on ‘un-Islamic’ Pokémon Go
- By Alison Lesley --
- 21 Jul 2016 --
Saudi Arabia rejects ‘deviant’ Pokémon Go game.
Pokémon Go the newly introduced game version of Pokémon has created a heated debate in Saudi Arabia. The game was prohibited back in 2001 due to its non-compliance with Muslim faith. The religious edict has been revived by the Saudi Arabia’s top clerical body due to the high concerns of the members of the public in regard to the newly re-introduced app game for androids.
Saudi Arabia restores ban on ‘un-Islamic’ Pokémon Go.[/tweetthis]
The game is an improved version of the 1996 Nintendo game and it has received positive response globally as indicated by the download statistics. The game is designed with features that use the Smartphone satellite location, graphics and other features to create cartoon monsters who roar on the real-world and they challenge the players to capture them and train them for real battles.
The game involves a lot of gambling something that goes against the Muslim teachings. In addition, the cards contained symbols of “deviant religions” such as Christianity crosses, freemasonry symbols and stars and Japan’s ancient Shinto symbols.
The game was rejected by Islam community because according to edict, the Pokémon game was un-Islamic as it contains polytheism. The game for instance, contains triangular symbols with stars which hold various meaning in Freemasonry. The move to ban the app has been attributed to the ongoing adverse effects the game is causing globally. Recently, there have been numerous cases of increased crime, traffic jams and accidents all over the world.
"The Council of Senior Religious Scholars denied that it issued a new fatwa about the Pokemon game." https://t.co/m4FdzvfT4f
— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) July 21, 2016
However, many individuals in Saudi Arabia have downloaded the new Smartphone version of the game Pokémon Go illegally, and they have already started playing the “cartoon monster game”.
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