Ever since the smoking-in-enclosed-public-places ban came into effect across England & Wales I’ve bumped into people complaining that it is somehow discriminatory against Muslims and/or Asian/Middle-eastern people who smoke water pipe (a.k.a. shisha, hookah, nargile) as part of their culture and/or because they don’t drink alcohol. I’ve always found this argument somewhat ridiculous. If other forms of tobacco smoking are banned because of the harmful effects on health then it makes no sense to exempt shisha – particularly as the WHO claim shisha smoke is actually much more harmful than from cigarettes.
Now Turkey’s Islamist government has signed into law a wide-ranging smoking ban which will come into effect in 18 months time. And just like the ban in England & Wales it will affect sheesha. Source: Turkey to introduce smoking ban [RTÉ News]. Quite right too! This a sign of the times: smoking (of any sort) is become less and less socially acceptable as more is understood about the health risks, especially of secondary smoke. The Edgware Road will just have the adapt.
so who are you then? the shisha police?
idiot, let people do what they want.