All ASCII emoticons are blasphemous, at least according to some Muslim clerics:

Experts on a website called "Ask the Imam" say the act of keeping photographs of loved ones in an album is also prohibited in Islamic law.

And they go further than that: Even emoticons - the "smiley-face" icons widely used in email and mobile phone text messaging - are forbidden, rules Mufti Ebrahim Desai, a South Africa-based cleric.