Bareilly: A large number of clerics who gathered at Jamiat-ur-Raza madrassa of Bareilly as part of Sharia Council of India meeting on Saturday said that Bitcoins are against Islamic laws. They said that the government also does not accept Bitcoins as legal tender.

“Investing in Bitcoins is like gambling, which is considered illegal in Islam,” a senior cleric said.

As new trend of acquiring Bitcoins has emerged among people in the country, clerics who gathered in the Sharia Council meeting discussed whether investing in them is fine in the light of Islam or not. The meeting was headed by Mufti Mohammad Akhtar Raza Khan Qadri, the chief cleric at Dargah Aala Hazrat.

Salman Hasan Khan Qadri of Jamat Raza-e-Mustafa, which organised the conference, said, “As the government is not supporting Bitcoins as a legal tender, uncertainty is involved for those who are dealing with it. There is high chance that people might suffer huge losses in it. Bitcoins is not even physical currency or coins. Purchasing them is risky and similar to indulging in gambling and hence, the clerics have termed it as un-Islamic. We will ask people to stay away from dealing in it.’’

The announcement of clerics on Bitcoins comes days after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred all the regulated entities, including banks, with immediate effect from providing services to any individual or business from dealing with or settling with the virtual currencies.