Fatwa-Online has been informed that:
Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority has banned the popular children’s game Pokémon.
In a fatwa, the Permanent Committee for Islaamic Research and Fataawa, headed by Shaykh ‘Abdul-‘Azeez Aal ash-Shaykh, the grand mufti, urged “all Muslims to beware of this game and prevent their children from playing it.”
The Permanent Committee charged that Pokémon “resembles gambling because of the competition, which at times involves sums of money being exchanged between collectors of the cards,” the committee said.
The Permanent Committee said the concept of the characters in the game appeared to be based on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Most of the cards “figure six-pointed stars, a symbol of international Zionism and the state of Israel,” the Permanent Committee said.
