An Indonesian Muslim group has very recently declared a fatwa, or a religious edict, on the popular battle royale game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), or more specifically, the mobile version, PUBG Mobile. The group cites that the mobile game insults Islam and triggers violence in players.

Indonesia joins India, China, Nepal (now unbanned), Iran, and potentially Malaysia, in the list of countries who ban PUBG via a fatwa.

The mobile version is more popular than the PC version.

On Wednesday, the conservative Aceh province chapter of the powerful Ulema Council hailed to the local residents to ditch PUBG Mobile and suggested the local government to consider banning the game outright.

Breaking the fatwa would not result in sanctions, the council said, but the group’s national chapter has been discussing in banning violent games altogether.

The Aceh edict would apply to other violent games, but the UIema Council has not specified which games in detail.

Faisal Ali, deputy chairman of the Aceh Ulema Council, pointed out that games can trigger violence.

“Our fatwa says that PUBG and other similar games are haram (forbidden) because they can trigger violence and change people’s behaviour.”

Ali also told the news agency AFP that the game “insults Islam” without further elaboration. The mobile game has been soaring in popularity over the region, and Ali has expressed his concern and said:

“We’ve seen that children and even adults in Aceh are starting to get addicted to the game and they’re playing it everywhere on their mobile phones.”

Video game violence is a popular topic to be debated and a reason to ban games, but on the contrary, a study by Oxford proves otherwise. Well, I reckon that this will be an evergreen topic that will live on as long as video games exist.