Fatwa issued against Pokemon Go, Dargah Aala Hazrat says it may provoke people to enter holy places

Bareilly: Bareilly's religious shrine Dargah Aala Hazrat on Saturday issued a fatwa against the 'Pokemon Go' saying the trend spells danger for its players. 

In the fatwa, the clerics expressed concern as they felt that the game might provoke many to enter places of worship, creating law and order problems, and also leave many severely addicted to it.

"There is a possibility that players might enter religious shrines while prayers are going on. It might create law and order problems," Mufti Mohammed Saleem Noori, spokesperson of the influential Barelvi seminary Dargah Aala Hazrat and the cleric who issued the fatwa, was quoted as saying.

Earlier, two residents of Mauritius had contacted Maulana Qamar Raza, a Port Louis-based cleric, to know whether playing Pokemon Go is un-Islamic. 

The game has already been blamed for a wave of crimes, traffic violations and injuries with hordes of safety advisories following users as they go out to catch them all.

Scholars in Saudi Arabia have also passed a fatwa against it. Islamic authorities in Malaysia and Iran have also imposed a ban on the game.