Narghilistan : A Hot Summer in ““Waterpipe””™ - Blitzed Lands

A new published "Knol" gives a not uninteresting account of a salvo of new studies. You're dead !

QUOTATIONS: "Last summer, we have been on a sabbatical leave in the Middle East and while the neighbouring country, Pakistan was, once again, struck by natural catastrophes (water floods), US drones (radio-controled aricrafts) have been shelling civilian populations in an endless war against Afghanistan.

"Against this tragic backdrop, ««waterpipe»» publications (only biomedical publications since “official” social and human scientists have left this field wide open to antismoking self-righteous crusades) have virtually been pouring. The objective of such a blitz is twofold [...]" >>>> continued THERE


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Long Live Iraqi Resistance to Imperialism, Terrorism, Torture & Prohibition of Smoking in the Name of the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control

Los Angeles Times : Babylon & Beyond. IRAQ: Smokers dismayed by tough anti-smoking legislation

"Persuading people to give up their nicotine habits may be a different matter, however. The militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq tried to ban smoking in areas under its control a few years ago, and it's one reason Sunnis turned against the insurgency."

""I don't think people will obey the law," said Mutlaq, the legislator. "Their problems are bigger than smoking, and the daily risk to their lives is greater than smoking.""

Remember: Tobacco Prohibition in “Free” Iraq. "We want Saddam back", said Ala al-Kanini !

CONCLUSION

We Want Scientific Evidence, not Killing Embargos !

Iraqis, Free Thinkers, Independent Researchers, Anti-Fascists of the World, Stand Up and Resist! No Pasaran

RELEVANT READINGS

Thomas Eissenberg & Brian Primack Promote Pseudo-Science Based US Prohibition to Middle East “Public Health” Puppets

LEBANON: New US Interference in Home Social & Cultural Affairs in the Name of the WHO FCTC (Framework Convention for Tobacco Control)

SHOCKING! PALESTINIANS Still Smoking in Cafes! Big Pharma Antismokers Want Palestinians Stop Smoking ! Retaliate ?

Michael Schwartz, Joshua Holland, Luke Baker, Maki al-Nazzal, Dahr Jamail. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation. Voltaire (Non-Aligned Press Network) 2010 (21Feb)[(News Story selected by Project Censored in 2009)]

Project censored: The news that didn’t make the news

Burnham G, Lafta R, Doocy S, Roberts L. Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey. Lancet. 2006 Oct 21;368 (9545):1421-8.

Roberts L, Lafta R, Garfield R, Khudhairi J, Burnham G. Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey. Lancet. 2004 Nov 20-26;364(9448):1857-64.

Huit légendes médiatiques sur l’Irak : «Une vérité est un mensonge répété mille fois»
Automatic English : PRESS HERE

Image: Courtesy of journal Le Monde (covering the invasion of Iraq by Non-Smoking Bush-Led Barbarians, April 2003)

YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH OR HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe"™, Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there!

Thomas Eissenberg & Brian Primack Promote Pseudo-Science Based US Prohibition to Middle East “Public Health” Puppets

Further to:

The Lebanese Ban on Smoking in Hospitality Venues (Cafes, etc.):US Interventionism and Prohibition in the Name of the FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control)

The Syrian Ban on Smoking in Hospitality Venues (Cafes, etc.) :The Challenge of Scientific Integrity

And after Iraq is now deprived from smoking after it has been pacified by the force of US bloody occupation...

Thomas EISSENBERG, the anti ““waterpipe””™ millionaire expert, author of the WHO calamitously flawed report on ““waterpipe”” smoking, and with Brian PRIMACK, are now interested in Jordan.

Here's their new product : Mohammed AZAB, Omar F KHABOUR, Almuthanna K ALKARAKI, Thomas EISSENBERG, Karem H ALZOUBI, Brian A PRIMACK. Water pipe tobacco smoking among university students in Jordan. Nicotine Tob Res. 2010 Apr 23.

Nicotine and Tobacco [antismoking] Research is a Farmingtonian journal. Farmingtonian ? What’s this ?

QUESTION

Why are those US highly-paid people so interested in prohibiting smoking in the Middle East ? At least this would be understandable if they were only interested in protecting US “White Youth” as their colleagues of the University of Michigan do:

Hikmet Jamil & coll. Wish to Protect US-American “White Youth” from Hookah in Study Published in the Nicotine & Tobacco [Antismoking] Research Journal

However, why the heck are they interested in the so-called “public health” of populations whose countries are occupied by their own army ?

Certainly the methods and objective are the same (military and scientific imperialism) but the answer is very simple: they (Gregory Connolly, Thomas Eissenberg, Brian Primack, etc. and all the names you will see behind ““waterpipe””™ studies) all are members of Globalink, "the world antismoking network of about 6,000 researchers/organisations around the world, sponsored (that is receiving big $$$ MONEY) by the pharmaceutical industry (Pfizer laboratories among others). Note (for those who still haven't been tipped off): the pharmaceutical industry promotes and sells nicotine “replacement” tools such as nicotine inhalers, patches, gums, etc.

Also, let's mention Brian PRIMACK’ strong links with the RWJF (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) . More on the RWJF and its defense of Big Pharma interests.

Some of them may say they receive """independent""" funding from governmental sources (such as NIH and other agencies). The truth is that in the end, the people who decide on granting or not the funding are more or less (particularly thanks to the Globalink network) colleagues of the grantees and, most of the time, influenced by the pharmaceutical industry (Pfizer in particular). The loop is looped.

See how Gregory Connolly 2008’ speech at the US-American University of Beirut was sponsored (that is, MONEY $$$$) by Pfizer:

Tobacco control expert: Smoking will claim the lives of at least 150,000 young Lebanese. News Highlights (US-American University of Beirut ), 29 May 2008.

Let’s make it clear here that they have absolutely no data showing concrete risks so they resort to lies, suppositions, and junk statements to tout bans as soon as possible:

Going straight to the point and without listing again the classical series of huge errors:

"The lack of an observed difference across these variables suggests that water pipe tobacco smoking is deeply ingrained in Jordanian society and that effective public health efforts to reduce it will need to be robust and widespread."

Do'nt worry Tom, the boys (GIs) are next door !

About addiction, don’t laugh too loud because it is written by the official antismoking ““waterpipe””™ expert who prepared the WHO calamitously flawed report . He found that the blood nicotine level, further to a 45 min hookah smoking session, did not reach that induced by a single cigarette. And building upon this scaring finding, he has the cheek to write:

"The sense that water pipe is less harmful than cigarettes was associated with a higher prevalence of using a water pipe to smoke tobacco. Thus, highlighting the smoke toxicant content and user toxicant exposure associated with water pipe tobacco smoking may be one valuable method for intervention. Those perceiving low addictiveness of water pipe were also more likely than others to smoke tobacco using a water pipe, so this perception similarly may present a valuable opportunity for education. Adding to the growing body of evidence that water pipe tobacco smoking supports nicotine/tobacco dependence will be important."

CONCLUSION

Haram-Treif Science Award to the Nicotine and Tobacco [antismoking] Research and to the local Stooges of US Interventionism in Jordan in the name of “Public Health” !

“Haram” and “Treif” ? … What’s this ?

Seek [good, sound] science from the cradle to the grave !Not Bad science, pseudo-science, junk science which are an insult to Religion !

We Want Scientific Evidence, not Killing Embargos !

Jordanians, Free Thinkers, Independent Researchers, Anti-Fascists of the World, Stand Up and Resist ! No Pasaran !


RELEVANT READINGS

SHOCKING! PALESTINIANS Still Smoking in Cafes! Big Pharma Antismokers Want Palestinians Stop Smoking ! Retaliate ?

Long Live Iraqi Resistance to Imperialism, Terrorism, Torture & Prohibition of Smoking in the Name of the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control

The Lebanese Ban on Smoking in Hospitality Venues (Cafes, etc.):US Interventionism and Prohibition in the Name of the FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control)

The Syrian Ban on Smoking in Hospitality Venues (Cafes, etc.) :The Challenge of Scientific Integrity

Prohibition Through the Hookah Looking-Glass (historical speech with a call to States to withdraw from the FCTC)

Dr Rima Nakkash, US-AUB Ambassador of Shisha Prohibition in the Arab World

Huge errors in a recent Jordanian study

Image: Courtesy of Hookah Culture

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LEBANON: New US Interference in Home Social & Cultural Affairs in the Name of the WHO FCTC (Framework Convention for Tobacco Control)

First 190 words tapped from the Knol Hotline

"Beirut: “A smoking ban in public places is expected to take effect within a year, George Saadeh, head of the National Tobacco Control Program announced at a debate on tobacco control held at American University Beirut (AUB) Tuesday”[1] .

It was a great show indeed, reminiscent of crowds acclaiming other assaults on liberties during World War II: “AUB students, gathered to hear the keynote speaker, greeted the announcement [i.e. the Prohibition of smoking (cigarettes and narghile) in cafes, restaurants, fines for whom break the law] with overriding support”.

The Daily Star article does not mention the existence of a study behind the show at the US-American University of Beirut. It was recently published in the antismoking Tobacco Control journal and its authors are Georges Saade, Andrew Seidenberg, Vaughan Rees, Zaher Otrock and Gregory N Connolly. Its is titled “Indoor secondhand tobacco smoke emission levels in six Lebanese cities” and obviously aims to be the main "scientific evidence" to justify tobacco smoking Prohibition in Lebanon, in a scenario very similar to neighbouring Syria (see related Knol on Smoking Prohibition in Syria). Interestingly, the latter, as a model, is cited by the authors...[2]."

References (as provided from the source of the wire):

[1] Simona Sikimic. Smoking ban in public spaces expected within a year. The Daily Star, Thursday, April 08, 2010)

[2] Saade G, Seidenberg AB, Rees VW, Otrock Z, Connolly GN. Indoor secondhand tobacco smoke emission levels in six Lebanese cities. Tob Control 2010;19: 138-142.

Globalink-affiliated US Pharmaceutical-Industry funded Prohibitionist Envoys (from Harvard University) hand in hand with Globalink-affiliated US-American University of Beirut ““Waterpipe”” Prohibitionist outpost in the Middle East, measure tobacco passive smoke (“second-hand smoke”) in 28 Lebanese hospitalities during the stuffy holy Ramadan month. Then, publish biased data in antismoking Tobacco Kontrol journal

This is not all. They had the cheek to issue serious warnings whose tone sounds like those directed to Iran to dismantle its traditional Mass Entertainment Weapons

Quotations tapped from the Knol Hotline :

“The study reads from the onset: "To date, Lebanon has failed to enact comprehensive clean indoor air laws despite ratification of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) […] Despite ratification of the FCTC in 2005, both cigarette and water-pipe smoking are commonly practised in enclosed public places throughout Lebanon, leading to unsafe levels of indoor particulate pollution. Smoke-free policies are needed in Lebanon […] "

CONCLUSION

To Prohibitionist Yankees:

One thing only: Go Home, Hands Off Lebanon and Leave Lebanon in Peace !

To Lebanese Patriots:

1) Demand the withdrawal of Lebanon from the imperialist anti-democratic WHO FCTC (Framework Convention for Tobacco Control) !

2) Disseminate the corresponding historic speech

3) Resist US interference in your social and cultural affairs !

4) Demand accountability and the reimbursement of the public money granted to experts for providing the pseudo-scientific "haram"/"treif" studies against the national interest and for the direct benefit of pharmaceutical companies !

Christians, Jews and Muslims of Lebanon, Unite against "Haram" "Treif" Science !

“Haram science” and “Treif science” ? … What’s this ?

Christian sisters and brothers say to all Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Communists, Hinduists, Taoists, etc. of the world : “Don’t Be Afraid” (our Lord Jesus) !

and remember:

Seek [good, sound] science from the cradle to the grave !

Not Bad science, pseudo-science, junk science which are an insult to Religion !

RELEVANT READINGS

The Lebanese Ban on Smoking in Hospitality Venues (Cafes, etc.):US Interventionism and Prohibition in the Name of the FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control)

The Syrian Ban on Smoking in Hospitality Venues (Cafes, etc.) :The Challenge of Scientific Integrity

Prohibition Through the Hookah Looking-Glass (historical speech with a call to States to withdraw from the FCTC)

Dr Rima Nakkash, US-AUB Ambassador of Shisha Prohibition in the Arab World

Sex Maniacs in French Antismoking Organizations Abuse of Public Money

Narghile, Sex and the US-American Univer-City of Beirut... Tobacco Control, Prostitution and the City of Bombay...

Antismoking SEX MANIACS Strike Again in EGYPT : Fatimah El-Awa & WHO “Framework Convention for Tobacco Control”

Hail Iranian President and his Anti-Prohibition Stance ! Support Iran’s Right to Maintain its Traditional Mass Entertainment Weapons !

Simon Chapman’s Lost Battle of “Tobacco Control”. Wretched Intent to Mobilize Muslims & Jews Against the Tobacco Industry (Australian Pig Blood Story)

YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH OR HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe"™, Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there!

Simon Chapman’s Lost Battle of “Tobacco Control”. Wretched Intent to Mobilize Muslims & Jews Against the Tobacco Industry (Australian Pig Blood Story)

[Update Apr 22: content unchanged. Only the previous image (cover of the antismoking "Tobacco Control" journal April issue) was replaced with that of a book (left) by Gilles Chatelet [translated title: "Living and Thinking like Pigs"] which was deemed most relevant. By the way, this philosopher has nothing against those nice animals... Here's a presention of his work for the happy ones who can read French: "une réflexion sur la "Contre-Réforme néo-libérale", une démystification, l’analyse des présupposés scientistes (et ô combien " réalistes ") d’une idéologie dont la pensée n’est pas le point fort. Comment en est-on arrivé là ? [...] Châtelet propose aujourd’hui une philosophie de combat qui fasse "plus de vagues et moins de vogue". [more with Fluctuat]"

The Daily Telegraph (March 30, 2010): Cigarettes may contain pigs blood. From AAP (Australia)

In this press item extensively quoting from him, Simon Chapman pathetically scares Muslims and Jews about the “undisclosed” presence of pig element in cigarettes…

Excellent ! That animal haemoglobin may have been used here or there in some cigarette filters (although it is apparently very rare and limited to some places in Greece) to trap carbon monoxide or other harmful chemicals is not the problem here.

Some commentators have decided that it would be an April Fool's Day joke…

This isn't our opinion. We think that the timing is likely more related to a historic speech in The Hague (March 15, 2010) in which an independent non-antismoking researcher found, “further to numerous in-depth peer-reviewed critiques of biomedical publications (notably the WHO expert report)”, […] that “Prohibition based on shoddy science also collides with the holy teachings of a great religion of the world. The latter commands that good sound science should be sought from the cradle to the grave. Consequently, he invites States, particularly those for which this religion is central, to collectively withdraw from the WHO FCTC (Framework Convention for Tobacco Control) and demand accountability (International Court of Justice)”.

Of course, that shoddy science is, to a great extent, that published in “Tobacco Control”, the main world antismoking journal whose Editor-in-Chief for one decade or so has been Simon Chapman himself. See last issue (not another April Fool’s Day joke !)

This April issue contains many interesting papers offering a foretaste of the so strongly desired Prohibition. It is heralded by an editorial on Electronic cigarettes written by Jack HENNINGFIELD (USA) and Ghazi ZAATARI (US-American University of Beirut), two prominent WHO TobReg experts who stress the necessity for procrastinating another 10 years or so because ENDDs (new speak for electronic cigarettes) might be very hazardous in their opinion… Therefore, they suggest in their WHO jargon an “emerging science foundation for policy” so you folks can be impressed by the scientific nature of the procrastination… Case made !

In view of his interests in US Big Big Pharma products, Jack HENNINGFIELD’s not very enthusiastic opinion about the Chinese gadget is understandable, isn’t it ?

However, why, would you ask, is Ghazi ZAATARI’s analysis likely to be biased ? Simply because the proportion of cigarette smokers in Lebanon is so huge (around 60% of the total population). This means that the great hazard for the pharmaceutical industry is that those Eastern folks adopt the Chinese gadget instead of the nicotine inhalers, patches and gums, and Chantix… Understood ? If not, browse this site to see the similar tactics in their “scientific” war against the ““waterpipe””…

Note: Last month, in the same “Tobacco Control” antismoking journal, the One Million E-cigarette users in the USA could find a rocket science study by Thomas Eissenberg whose title is everything but unclear: “Electronic nicotine delivery devices: ineffective nicotine delivery and craving suppression after acute administration”

Interestingly, the previously mentioned independent non-antismoking researcher who went Holland to deliver his speech against Prohibition said that E-cigarettes are now under the same fire (that is, the so-called “peer-reviewed” “studies”) led by the same people who have attacked the hookah for almost one decade now.

Not sure ? Let’s see:

Jack HENNINGFIELD and Ghazi ZAATARI are the WHO TobReg experts who have ““peer-reviewed”” the infamous WHO flawed report on ““waterpipe””™ smoking.

Ghazi ZAATARI has personally selected the experts to be appointed for the task of preparing that document (source: US-American University of Beirut Bulletin dated Feb 2006, Vol7, 45)

The first "objectively" “selected” expert was Alan SHIHADEH (who is affiliated with the same institution, the US-American University of Beirut…) and the second one was Thomas EISSENBERG… What a coincidence…

The more the merrier… D’you kow what ? All these people are members of Globalink !

This is not all. The “Tobacco Control” antismoking journal is also famous for having published a “reference” (certainly it has been one for the crowds of blind or parroting researchers who cited it) review on ““waterpipe””™ authored by Wasim Maziak and co-authored, among others, by Thomas Eissenberg. As expected, the “reference” review is a great fraud and contains tremendous scientific errors:

Maziak W, Ward KD, Afifi Soweid RA, Eissenberg T. Tobacco smoking using a waterpipe: a re-emerging strain in a global epidemic. Tobacco Control 2004; 13: 327-333.

See critique of main errors THERE

Most scientific journals would have retracted such a big stain in their editorial content. “Tobacco Control” did not because antismoking ideology is superior to science.

CONCLUSION

This Autralian story about pig blood in cigarette filters is rubbish and the Observatory on Hookah or Health has decided to grant the “Haram Science” and “Treif Science” Award to Simon Chapman !

“Haram” and “Treif” ? … What’s this ?

Bad science, pseudo-science, are illicit in Religion !

RELEVANT READINGS

On Simon CHAPMAN and the world antismoking Globalink octopus (WHO, WHO TFI, WHO TobReg, Prohibition, etc.) : see “A Global Prison ?” (interview with historian of antismoking)

On his antismoking journal : Comfits of Interest, WHO TobReg, Globalink, Tobacco Control, etc. : Double Standard and/or Hypocrisy ?

On Jack HENNINGFIELD and his so big connections with Big Pharma that (poor man), he “forgets” to mention them…, see that ARTICLE:

On Ghazi ZAATARI, see Narghile, Sex and the US-American Univer-City of Beirut... Tobacco Control, Prostitution and the City of Bombay...

Read also: “E-Cigarettes, Hookah (Shisha, Narghile) and E-Hookah”. A comment on an article published in the British Medical Journal (Flouris AD, Oikonomou DN. Electronic cigarettes: miracle or menace ? BMJ. 2010 Jan 19;340:c311. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c311)

YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH OR HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe"™, Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there !

Dr Rima Nakkash, US-AUB Ambassador of Shisha Prohibition in the Arab World

(updated /section "what religion says about tobacco smoking", Jan 16)

Excerpts from things heard and seen (see image) at a conference (title: Risk of Shisha Use Severe) recently held at the United Arab Emirates University (4-8 January 2010)

Dr Rima Nakkash from the US-American University of Beirut: “Research by the World Health Organisation’s study group on tobacco product regulation conducted in 2005 found that one session of smoking a water pipe could be as dangerous as smoking up to 100 cigarettes".

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS CLAPTRAP FUNDED BY PUBLIC TAX MONEY

FIRST, THE WHO REPORT IS NOT A STUDY but a flawed review of carefully selected antismoking papers themselves full of scientific errors.

SECOND, IT IS A HUGE FRAUD. It is full of serious scientific errors. As an example (among many ones) its authors didn’t realize by that time that :

-the chemical composition (tar to start with) of shisha smoke is completely different from that from cigarette smoke

-temperatures are different in both cases by hundreds of degrees

-shisha smoking is not addictive,

-etc., etc.

EVIDENCE: in the OFFICIAL CRITIQUE OF THE WHO FLAWED REPORT

THIRD, 10 or 100 hundred times more smoke DOES NOT mean 10 or 100 times more “toxic” simply because shisha smoke is chemically completely different. Shisha smoke is mainly made up of GLYCEROL (biologically inactive, experts say) and DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE (a highly dangerous chemical as all honest scientists of the world know.

What is DHMO ?

Video 1 on the hazards of DiHydrogen Monoxide (DHMO).

Video 2

Video 3

ROCKET SOCIOLOGY from US-University of Beirut!

Dr Rima Nakkash:

"This finding is disturbing, she said, because shisha is seen as fashionable and more acceptable than cigarettes among women”.

"In her research among smokers in four Middle Eastern countries, Dr Nakkash found a propensity for shisha smoking among women and youths in particular. “Youths start smoking water pipes because it is socially acceptable and much more permissible than cigarettes, and for women, it is a fashionable trend,” she said."

CONCLUSION

Dr Rima Nakkahs takes Arabs who have not studied at the US-American University of Beirut for boobies who cannot distinguish between heated and burnt materials.

More on other aspects of Dr Rima Nakkash' prohibition campaigns :

Narghile, Sex and the US-American Univer-City of Beirut... Tobacco Control, Prostitution and the City of Bombay...

Rocket sociology : Rima Nakkash and Joanna Khalil Went to the USA (November 2009) to reveal to the world why "“waterpipe”™ "" tobacco smoking" is ""so sexy""(sic !)

After being highly carcinogenous, it is now "so sexy". That's interesting...

HALAL (licit) or HARAM (illicit) ?
A CALL TO ALL MUSLIMS OF THE WORLD
Remember our beloved Jesus Christ' words:
"Don't Be Afraid !"

Certainly, tobacco is not HALAL (licit)("kosher" for Jews). However, what is top HARAM (illicit)("Treif" for Jews) in Islam is junk science. This is because the Prophet of Islam said: Seek science from the cradle to the grave.

He didn’t explicitly mention "scientific integrity" although it’s obvious that the science the believer must seek all her(his) life is sound science, what they would call today "evidence-based" science in the field of medicine.

Therefore, true Muslims should reject all the junk science that says, as in the case of Dr Rima Nakkash from the US-American University of Beirut, citing a junk report from the World Health Organization (prepared by her colleagues of the same university… and the US-Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies …)(*), that:

"One shisha session = 10, 20, 100, 500, 900 cigarettes…”. Basta !

True Muslims should also reject cigarette junk science (particularly what you can read here and there about the so-called numerous cancers caused by passive smoking ("environmental tobacco smoke").

(*) Similarly, true Muslims should reject the junk "scientific" recommendations elaborated by the WHO "experts regarding junk vaccination and, particularly, the so-called "Swine Flu" "pandemic"). Not to mention the “Shisha and Swine Flu” scare !

Indeed, God considers junk science as Haram !

Certainly, tobacco is not mentioned in the Holy Quran as Italian experts have recently noted, stressing that “storicamente molti giuristi hanno considerato lecito il fumare” (through history, many jurists have considered that smoking is licit (Halal)). Tobacco smoking would be among “cose che provocano danno” (things that harm)(1-2) and there we stand. L’Italia è bella…

QUESTION: Since most of antismoking organizations' “science” on tobacco smoking is biased, politicised and flawed, in the name of what principle today’s US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand’s secular non-religious prohibitionists would push States (particularly in Muslim countries), to ban cigarette and shisha smoking in cafes and public parks ?

(1) Prevenzione dei danni da fumo di tabacco: un ruolo per l’islam? Tabaccologia 2007;1:20-21
(2) Holy Quran (II, 195; VII, 157).

Note: The US-Syrian anti-““Waterpipe””™ center was awarded a prize of excellent science by one institution in the United Arab Emirates. Is this a mere coincidence ?

And remember one important thing, folks ! If tobacco is neither Halal nor Haram, Honey is highly Halal (licit) !

“And thy Lord taught the Bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in (men's) habitations. Then to eat of all the produce (of the Earth), and follow the ways of thy Lord made smooth. There issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colors, wherein is healing for men. Verily in this is a Sign for those who give thought.” (Holy Quran, XVI, 68-69)

If the mixture "TOBACCO (neither Haram nor Halal) + HONEY (Halal)" is Halal or Haram is another moot question…

Image: credit usurpated by Goodhealth

YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH OR HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe"™, Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there !