Bizarre! Maulana issues fatwa against Facebook emoji, terms it forbidden for Muslims

A prominent Bangladeshi cleric with a huge online following has issued a fatwa against using Facebook's 'HAHA' emoji to mock people. He asked his Muslims followers to not use the emoji to mock others and termed it 'forbidden'.

New Delhi: A Bangladeshi Muslim cleric Maulana Ahmadullah, who has a huge following on YouTube and Facebook, has issued a fatwa against people using Facebook's 'HAHA' emoji. The maulana has termed it 'totally haram' for Muslims. According to the cleric, people use Facebook's 'HAHA' emoji to mock others. He said if a person is using the emoji purely out of fun basis, then it is fine, but if it is being used to mock other people on the platform then it is totally not accepted in Islam. The maulana called it wrong to do so and thereby, issued a fatwa, which has now become a topic of discussion among the people.  It is to be noted that Maulana Ahmadullah is a new generation Maulana in Bangladesh, who remains active on the Internet. He has more than 3 million followers on Facebook and YouTube and is extremely popular. He appears frequently on television and discusses religious matters mainly in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. On Saturday, Maulana posted a three-minute video and talked about mocking people on Facebook by using 'Haha' emoji. After this, he issued a fatwa against the emji and said that doing so is ‘haram’ for Muslims.