As the world goes crazy over Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game, Saudi Arabia’s top religious body has renewed a 2001 ruling banning the Pokémon franchise as un-Islamic, saying it promotes gambling and Darwin’s theory of evolution.The 15-year-old ban on the Pokémon game has been revived, the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars said on the website of the General Presidency for Scholarly Research and Ifta, Arab News reported on Wednesday.
The old fatwa dealt with the Pokémon card game, however Sheikh Saleh Al-Fozan, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, said it is no different from today’s mobile version of the game.
Both versions encourage gambling prohibited in Islam and adopt the theory of evolution, he said.
“One of the most important things that makes man condemn this game is adopting the theory of evolution developed by Darwin,” the fatwa reads. “Astonishingly, the children frequently use the word ‘evolution’ inside and outside the game.”
The game is also blamed for containing various symbols banned in Islam such as six-pointed stars, “associated with Judaism,” crosses that come from Christians, angles and triangles used by many “devious” organizations, including Freemasonry and signs of the Shinto religion.
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