Faizel Patel, 2016-07-28
Pokémon Go has come under severe criticism after the game took the fight between its characters to the Holy Kaaba in Makkah with other points of collection being found on the gates of the Haram in Saudi Arabia.
The wildly popular augmented-reality game allows players search for virtual Pokémon characters using their smartphones that appear to pop up at office spaces, restaurants and now it seems even the holiest of all places which have not been spared by the Pokémon Go craze.
A member of the Council of Senior Scholars Sheikh Abdullah Al-Munea told Arab News the game is a national security hazard as it aims to uncover secret locations, which is considered treason.
According to the paper, when its website team visited Makkah, it found that one of the fighting grounds of Pokémon was actually atop Kaaba. Around the new mataf, five players were found playing, and the number is growing.
But Appeals Court Judge and member of the Shoura Council Sheikh Issa Al-Ghaith said with regard to finding Pokémon characters on the Kaaba, hacking it and playing it without moving, “in general, I do not think there is anything ‘haram’ (forbidden) in it as it is.”
Earlier this week renowned Islamic scholar Mufti Siraj Desai urged Muslims on Radio Islam’s weekly Q & A programme which airs on Tuesdays 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.
Mufti Desai said 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.”
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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