“Bitcoin is un-Islamic”, says Turkey’s religious authority

Turkey’s highest religious authorities have declared that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not in accordance with Islam. Buying or selling of cryptocurrency is not in compliance with Islam due to lack of regulations by the state and strong connection to criminal activities, local media outlet reports.

Bitcoin has seen a surprising boost during the past months and recently its value has crossed $12,000 mark. Bitcoin is seeing an increased number of investors all over the world. The influence of cryptocurrencies in European countries is much larger, that’s why Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs also known as Diyanet has advised Turks against investing in online cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

As reported by RT, Diyanet which has jurisdiction related to the beliefs, worship, and morals of Islamic Religion in Turkey has emphasized that Turks must not invest in cryptocurrency. According to an official statement,

“The purchase and selling of digital currencies are not appropriate according to religion at this point due to the fact that they are open to speculation in terms of value and they can easily be used mostly in illegal deeds such as money laundering. They are also far from state auditing and supervision”.

Diyanet issued this statement when the price of Bitcoin crossed $10,000. Some financial experts warned about investing in the Bitcoin at that time, that the currency may be highly unstable.

This new statement by a major state’s religious body has increased the fatigue of investors, which are already worried, as Bitcoin has observed few mini crashes during this year. The most dominating cryptocurrency has gone volatile and it’s difficult to predict its future price, as its value rise in seconds and drops down with the same pace.