Since its launch Pokémon Go has been called many things- time wasting, dangerous and distracting for children.

But now a new charge has been levelled at it, un-Islamic.

Top clerics in Egypt are less than pleased with the craze and have declared it 'haraam'- forbidden in Arabic, Gulf News reports .

Abbas Shuman, deputy head of Al Azhar-Egypt's top Islamic institution- compared the game to alcohol, which is also forbidden in Islam.

“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,” He said.

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

(Image: Getty)

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

Although Pokemon Go has not been officially launched in Egypt, many mobile users in the country reported that they have been able to download it on their phones.

(Image: Getty)

In 2001, Nasr Fareed, Egypt’s then grand mufti, the country’s highest Islamist official, banned the Pokemon franchise, saying it is un-Islamic allegedly for promoting Charles Darwin’s controversial theory of evolution.

The game has also provoked condemnation in Saudi Arabia where the Higher Committee for Scientific Research and Islamic Law issued a fatwa against the game, describinh it as "possessing the minds" of children while promoting Zionism and gambling.