Egypt calls Pokémon Go haram, Turkey says its insulting Islam

Top clerics in Egypt has called for a ban on  Pokémon Go on grounds that it is unIslamic.

According to a report in Gulf News, Islamic leaders in Egypt have compared the addiction of Pokémon Go with alcohol and have branded it 'haram.'

“This game makes people look like drunkards in the streets and on the roads while their eyes are glued to the mobile screens leading them to the location of the imaginary Pokemon in the hope of catching it,” Abbas Shuman, deputy head of Al Azhar-Egypt's top Islamic institution said, reported Gulf News.

"Will we find some lunatics walk into mosques, churches, prisons and military units in search of the missing [Pokemon]?” Shuman said.

“Will people neglect their work and earning their living and devote themselves instead to hunting for Pokemon?” he added.

Though Pokémon Go has officially been launched only in US, UK and Australia, many mobile users in Egypt, Turkey and other parts of the world reported that they have been able to download it on their android phones.

In Turkey, the union for imams in Turkey also have called for a ban of the game on grounds that insults Islam.

An AFP report citing Turkish daily Haberturk quoted Head of the Diyanet-Sen union of imams - Mehmet Bayraktutar, as saying that the game "undermines the significance and value of places where people worship" as users try to find Pokemon even in mosques.

Bayraktutar even suggested that the game was a western plot against Islam.

"I condemn this, I want it to be banned in Turkey."