Saudi Arabian clerics, who warned against playing Pokemon games in the past, are renewing those calls in the face of the unprecedented popularity of “Pokemon Go.”
The clerics reissued the fatwa, or edict, on the website of the General Presidency for Scholarly Research and Ifta Wednesday.
According to the fatwa, originally issued in 2001 when Pokemon was a card game, the franchise should be condemned for promoting gambling among adults and for worshipping multiple gods.
It also finds the use of a hexagram symbol in the game problematic. A six-pointed star is used to denote psychic-type Pokemon, but it is also a symbol associated with Israel.
“Pokemon Go” has taken the gaming world by storm, with an estimated 7.5 million U.S. downloads as of July 11, according to Tech Crunch.
The game is also popular in the Middle East, giving many conservative Muslims headaches as they try to reconcile the game’s appeal with its apparent violations of Islamic law and its potential to detach users from reality enough to cause harm to themselves.
Sheikh Saleh Al-Fozan, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, said that “Pokemon Go” presents the same issues as older versions of the franchise, according to Arab News.
