Cher hardest hit.
Via MEMRI:
Saudi-based preacher Wajdi Akkari posted a video on the Internet in which he instructs followers as to which emoticons a Muslim is not allowed to share on WhatsApp. The Lebanese-born Sheikh Akkari said that the halo emoticon is haram, because the notion of angels in Islam is different than in Christianity. The various Satan emoticons are also haram, because Muslims do not know what the devil looks like. Nevertheless, Sheikh Akkari said that it was permissible to Google these emoticons in order to learn why they are forbidden. The video was posted on March 1, 2016.
Following are excerpts
Wajdi Akkari: Forbidden emoticons… The face with the halo – when someone wants to share their innocence or say: “I’m a good boy,” they send that yellow smiley face with a halo. No! That halo represents, in Christianity, an angelic type of character. It is supposed to be for the angels. That means that it is a concept of “I am good as an angel.” In Islam… Do we believe that angels in Islam are like the angels in Christianity, which we have seen in their idols and statues? Absolutely not. So you cannot be sending the one with the halo, let alone any one with the devil.
There are many [emoticons] that are devilish – the red devil and stuff like that. We don’t know what Satan and the devil look like. Therefore, we are not allowed to draw him. Some people make videos, or different things, trying to symbolize or materialize the appearance of the devil. We don’t have the right in Islam to do this. We don’t know what he looks like. It is from the knowledge of the unseen. So these emoticons that are devilish in their nature are not allowed, even if you are trying to say that you are being a bad boy or a bad girl.
This one – many people send it as a prayer, and this is, again, used among Buddhists and Christians. Christians usually kneel on their knees, and they make this particular form to supplicate, to ask God. In Islam, how do you make du’a?You have your hands facing heaven like this: We don’t have… We never make du’a like this. Maybe they do it in karate or something too. So this particular emoticon is not allowed. Because it resembles… Don’t believe me. Google these things.