Ruling on Keeping Taxidermied Animals

Question:
What is the ruling on keeping some real animals, but they are taxidermied, in homes and other places?

Answer:
Keeping taxidermied animals is a matter of concern, and a ruling has been issued by us at the Ifta Authority prohibiting it for two reasons:
The first is the waste of money involved in it.
The second is that it leads to great evil: either to believing in it and thinking it protects the house from jinn, or from such and such, or to creating images and keeping pictures in houses and hanging them up. It is a means to this or that, or to both; because of the belief that this taxidermied animal, if placed in the house, or in a room, or on the wall, or such, may be a cause for protecting the house from such and such and such, or it may be a means to keeping images, for whoever sees it may think it is an image and say: So-and-so hung an image in his house, thus becoming a means for imitating him and following his example. Therefore, what I see and what I have ruled is prohibition and it is forbidden.