Influential Lahore seminary declares TikTok, SnackVideo apps ‘haram’

Jamia Ashrafia, an influential seminary in Lahore, has declared using two social media applications TikTok and SnackVideo ‘haram’ through a religious decree, said a senior religious cleric Monday.

The decree issued by the seminary states that making vulgar and indecent videos on SnackVideo and TikTok is ‘haram’ and such videos and “vulgar advertisements” are the things that end faith.

Mufti Zakria, a cleric at Jamia Ashrafia, told SAMAA Digital that “our youth” is destroying itself through such “vulgar” mobile phone applications. He said that people need to educate their children to protect them from such things.

Our youngsters are not cautious while using such applications and they sometimes aren’t able differentiate between what is good and what is bad, Zakria said. He added that this is the reason why the religious decree declared the use of video-making applications ‘haram’.

Pakistan has blocked TikTok twice in the past over its “obscene and immoral” content. The video-sharing app was unblocked in Pakistan in April 2021, three weeks after it was banned in the country on the orders of the Peshawar High Court.