Friday, May 29, 2009

The Sin of Smoking

HookahWe’re all used to the customary Muslim objections to alcohol — the young Arab men whipped for consuming it, the cabbies in Minneapolis who refuse passengers carrying it, the Muslim shop clerks who decline to sell it — but the idea that tobacco is haram comes as a surprise.

Smoking is an established institution in much of the Arab Middle East, especially in Turkey and North Africa. The hookah with its payload of maassel, jurâk, shisha, or kif — what would the Levant be without it? And will there no longer be anything known as “Turkish tobacco”?

If one particularly austere Islamic sect has its way, there will be no more smoking among Muslims:

Algeria: Salafites Target Tobacconists, Smoking is Sin

(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MAY 28 — Several tobacconists located in the more popular neighbourhoods of Algiers are allegedly ready to change their field of work because of the effect the Salafite movement is having on the population.

According to this movement, one of the most radical in all of Islam, smoking is a sin, just as much as drinking alcohol. According to the Algerian newspaper Liberté, which printed the report, many tobacconists, especially those located in more popular areas of the city such as Kouba and Hussein Dey, have been driven to close shop.

A cigarette salesman stated that “I have no intention of going against Islamic precepts. The Imam came over several times to tell me that the sale of cigarettes is a sin. I was not threatened. I will close my shop because of what I believe in”.
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But there may be monetary issues behind this decision. Sales of cigarettes in the areas mentioned and in tobacconists located next to mosques apparently crumbled in recent months. Another salesman stated that “nobody wants to be seen buying cigarettes. People no longer buy them in their neighbourhood, they buy them away from home”.

Liberté sees this as a sign of the grip these hardliners have over Algerian society: the population is in the hands of bearded men, and the people who experienced the birth of radical Islamic movements at the end of the 1980s are well aware of what this means.

The population is in the hands of bearded men.

Now there’s a formulation to send a chill up the spine, and give new meaning to the idea that smoking is bad for your health.


Hat tip: Insubria.

7 comments:

ɱØяñιηg$ʇðя ©™ said...

Everything that is joyful or pleasant is haram in islam. Fat chance I'll give up my record collection. The talibans can try take it from me if they want but that would certainly be bad for THEIR health...

Zenster said...

On a consistent basis, Islam continues to prove that it is the Religion of NO FUN.

Muslims remain impervious to the simple fact that their clerics will eventually strip away anything not related to knocking their skulls against the ground five times each day.

Remember, Osama bin Laden views ice in beverages as a sinful luxury. How soon before a refrigerated drink is equally haram? Will salt be withdrawn because it makes food taste too good?

It requires a stunning degree of obliviousness for Muslims to ignore how modern life presents endless opportunities for Imams to ban this, that and the other minuscule boon or pleasantry that makes everyday life enjoyable or even bearable.

Western civilization represents nothing less than an endless source of fatwan from industrious Islamic clerics who will ensure that modern life becomes a form of obsessive religious solitary confinement.

Islam is a spiritual gulag.

PatriotUSA said...

Islam is a spiritual gulag.

It most certainly is. Seems like most of my life is haram. Why because I enjoy life as much as me and my family are able to. Fact is I am enjoying a late cigar with a late/early morning beverage of nice Snake River Whiskey. These are rare treats and no muusie kapo is going to wrest those delights away from me.


Islam is an ideology that is a mental and physical prison of solitary confinment for life, unless one breaks free. Then you have the worries of a death threat against you and your family. Gosh, what fun being a muslim would be!

Zenster said...

PatriotUSA: Fact is I am enjoying a late cigar with a late/early morning beverage of nice Snake River Whiskey.

A morning repast of tobacco and whiskey, you say? In the trade, that is known as the "journalist's breakfast".

Islam is an ideology that is a mental and physical prison of solitary confinment for life, unless one breaks free.

Pause to consider just how barren Islamic culture must be:

No dogs for children to play with and learn from about unconditional love and devotion.

Illiterate mothers who cannot read a bedtime story to their children or help them learn how to read.

No freedom of speech that permits healthy discussion and critical analysis of current events.

No freedom of religion that is so vital to a healthy pluralistic society.

No graphic depiction of most living forms which curtails artistic creativity.

No public displays of affection that lend a romantic atmosphere to daily life.

No pork or other haram foods that widen the diet and give variety to sustenance.

No beautiful or shapely women proudly strutting their stuff on the street.

No non-liturgical music to break up the monotony of constant religious worship.

No alcohol to unwind with and enhance convivial gatherings.

No co-ed intermingling that allows young people to refine their social skills.

The Muslim world is a mental prison. It is abusive in the extreme and represents nothing more or less than a spiritual gulag.

ɱØяñιηg$ʇðя ©™ said...

It would probably be much easier to provide a list of things halal than haram. A list of all things haram would most certainly be waaay longer than the longest rap-sheet of even the worst criminal in the american penal system, I think. With that said, there's nooo way any bearded goon with a silly diaper on top of him is going to take away my music and film-collection or anything else that I enjoy but that in particular.

Speaking of dogs. I was out riding my bicycle one fine late afternoon a fortnight ago. I came across two young muslimas (who were not veiled for a change)and a guy out with his dog. It was not leashed btw. So it tried to sniff on the young muslimas but they both backed away. It was at that moment I realized they were muzzies in psite of them not having hijab. They looked at the poor dog like it ws something the cat had dragged in and also looked afraid for the creature like it would suddenly rip them to shreds. There was an age difference between the tw. I interpreted it as mom and daughter (of course I could be wrong assuming that). Still interesting to have the opportunity to witness how they actually react to dogs. No doubt they brainwash their young from an early age to hate dogs and pigs with a passion. And how sad isn't that?

Personally I have a cat and I don't know what the perfect man thought about felines but a fair guess is he hated them as much as anything else not muslim. I can only speak for myself and not a chance in hell I would torture my kittie, not even on the pain of death threat. Sad they can't get a healthy relationship as children with cats, dogs, budgies or whatever. As we in dar al-harb do.

ɱØяñιηg$ʇðя ©™ said...

Speaking of dogs. I was out riding my bicycle one fine late afternoon a fortnight ago. I came across two young muslimas (who were not veiled for a change)and a guy out with his dog. It was not leashed btw. So it tried to sniff on the young muslimas but they both backed away. It was at that moment I realized they were muzzies in spite of them not having hijab. They looked at the poor dog like it was something the cat had dragged in and also looked afraid for the creature like it would suddenly rip them to shreds. There was an age difference between the two.

Second column with corrections from typonese.

laine said...

Islam is a gigantic cult of a billion requiring slavish devotion to a thuggish prophet and disgusting God who rewards the killing of innocents with a bordello heaven.

The willingness to annihilate oneself so common in this cult is instilled by the swamp of misery that Islam creates on earth to the point that blowing yourself to smithereens becomes preferable. Eyes and ears that are deprived of beauty from birth mistake the ugliness of Islam for beauty.