Fatwa against Pokemon Go in India

Dargah Aala Hazrat in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, has issued a fatwa against the highly addictive mobile game, Pokemon Go. The Dargah’s cleric Mufti Mohammed Saleem Noori, who issued the fatwa, told the media that there's a high possibility that players may enter a religious shrine while prayers being performed, reported the Times of India.

Just as many other landmarks, the clerics are worried that the Dargah could possibly be another Pokestop. Noori said that the game might provoke many players to enter places of worship and create law and order problem.

Scholars in Saudi Arabia have also passed a fatwa against the mobile game.

Noori also informed the media that the Dargah’s decision to deem the game un-Islamic was taken after two residents of Mauritius contacted Maulana Qamar Raza, a Port-Louis-based cleric, to know whether playing Pokemon Go is 'un-Islamic'. 'A research was conducted by the clerics before passing a fatwa on religious line,' he told the TOI.

Players have been reportedly swiping away in a variety of ways as they wander the real world with their eyes glues to their smartphone’s screen in search of the Pokemon monsters. The game is unsafe to play, and playing it is now forbidden in Islam, said Noori.