Return of the Pokémon Fatwa in Saudi Arabia

Conservative Saudi clerics were probably relieved when Pokémon, banned by the country’s top religious body in 2001, fell out of favor over the past decade.

But those years of Pikachu-less peace faded into oblivion in recent days, as the country’s Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Iftaa was forced to dig out of its archives the 2001 fatwa banning Pokémon games. This time, it’s an order to ensure Saudis aren’t wandering the streets of Jeddah and Medina hunting for imaginary monsters with their phones.

The resurgence is due to Pokémon Go, a wildly popular mobile game, that is technically not available in Saudi Arabia, but users have found ways to download it illegally. That’s prompted a wave of questions from the public, who want to know whether religious scholars believe playing the game violates the teachings of Islam.

The old fatwa, posted on the clerical body’s website this week, said the game should not be played by Muslims because it employs “deviant” characters inspired by polytheism.

According to the edict, Pokémon is also similar to gambling. It’s unclear what part of the Japanese game — the virtual version of which involves hunting for various monsters — resembles gambling. One guess? Its addictive nature apparently triggers the same part of the brain as food and cocaine.

Photo credit: Warner Bros. Pictures