Saudi cleric Sheikh Ateeq Al-Ateeq said in his fatwa show on the Saudi Ahwaz TV channel that when people post pictures of themselves and their children on social media platforms, they risk becoming afflicted with diseases, including cancer. Sheikh Al-Ateeq warned that people might print these pictures and apply sorcery to them, causing those photographed to fall ill.

Following are excerpts from the show, which aired on February 3, 2016.

Ateeq Al-Ateeq: Many women – many of our sisters and our daughters – decorate the food not for the sake of their husbands, children, and family, but in order to take a picture of it. It's very important to discuss this. Some women, Allah bless them, pay a lot of attention to decorate the food they cook. They sit for hours an end, "engineering" a cucumber or a tomato, and it is all done so that people will see it. But she never does this for her husband and children. If it wasn't for all those apps – snapchat and others – she wouldn't have done this.

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Unfortunately – and this is a fact – many people were afflicted with envy because of this.

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By Allah, I have encountered cases of cancer, caused directly by pictures posted on the social media accounts. By Allah, I saw this with my own eyes. Children got cancer because of pictures circulated [online].

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A picture might transmit sorcery. The proof is that if I took your picture, and applied sorcery to it, you will be afflicted accordingly. So why do we find it difficult to believe that a sorcerer might take your picture from a social media account, print it, and cast sorcery upon it?