Faizel Patel, 2016-07-27
A renowned Islamic scholar has urged Muslims to refrain from downloading and playing Pokémon Go and other games associated with the name as it’s not permissible and totally haraam in Islam.
The wildly popular augmented-reality game developed by Nintendo and Google-spinoff Niantic Labs has reached 75 million downloads, surpassing those of every other mobile game developed in the last two years.
Using mobile devices, players search for virtual Pokémon characters that appear to pop up at office spaces, restaurants, museums and other places. Players score points in various ways, including capturing the Pokémon characters with a flick of a finger on their smartphone screen.
While the Pokémon Go phenomenon has amassed more then 75 million downloads it has also stirred up a variety of reactions across the globe as children and even adults stare intently at their smart devices, ever on the lookout for that elusive Pikachu.
Mufti Siraj Desai says the Pokémon Go game creates a very bad mentality and a type of occult in the minds of people especially children.
“A game like this is absolutely devoid of any type of benefit. It is a total waste, even the non-Muslims people are writing about the potential dangers in this game. The word Pokémon actually stands for “pocket monsters”.
Mufti Desai says while the inventors are making a fortune out of the game, they are non-chalant about the risks and dangers Pokémon Go poses on the spiritual and physical wellbeing of a person.
“Therefore advise people stop your children from playing these games and now its not even children, its big people that are playing these games and in Islam our main concern is our spiritual and roohaniyaat condition.”
Since the release of Pokémon Go people who play the game have gotten into car accidents, been robbed, fallen of buildings and stumbled upon dead bodies in rivers, their attention compromised by the need to catch ’em all.
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