If you've been in on the Pokemon Go craze, you may have to say your goodbyes if you're in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia's top clerical body has renewed a 15-year-old edict, calling out the Pokemon franchise for being "un-Islamic" as reported by Saudi media, according to Reuters . However, Pokemon Go was not mentioned specifically in the fatwa.
In 2001, there was a fatwa against the Pokemon card game with the Council of Senior Religious Scholars arguing that the mutations of the creatures in the game were blasphemous, as they promote the theory of natural evolution.
"It is shocking that the word 'evolution' has been much on the tongues of children," the fatwa read .
The game was also flagged because it included things like "polytheism against God by multiplying the number of deities, and gambling" and for integrating certain symbols in the game that promote Japan's Shinto religion, Freemasonry and "global Zionism."
Recently, Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission warned Pokemon Go users of "potential security and privacy violations," according to Argaam .
One of Egypt's religious bodies, Al-Azhar Islamic Institution reportedly issued a fatwa against the augmented reality game calling it a "harmful mania" because it makes "people look like drunkards in the streets and on the roads while their eyes are glued to the mobile screens leading them to the location of the imaginary Pokemon in the hope of catching it,” said Abbas Shuman, deputy chief of Al-Azhar, according to Gulf News .
Let's hope the renewed fatwa doesn't put a stop to Pokemon Go in the kingdom.
