The anti-smoking campaign, long fighting a cause almost lost against the powerful cigarette lobby, received key support from a most unlikely quarter: Muslim clerics.
Clerics from Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic community organization, have issued an edict declaring smoking to be haram, or forbidden, effectively making it a sin for any Muslim to smoke.
The edict is a legal opinion by Muslim scholars and is therefore not binding. Smokers, particularly the more addicted kind, will likely ignore the edict and continue puffing. A few may be affected, particularly the more devout Muslims, as they now regard sucking on a cancer stick as being tantamount to burning themselves in hell.
But given that a third of Indonesia’s 230 million people smoke, and given the formidable strength of the cigarette lobby, not surprisingly many people were quick to dismiss the latest Muhammadiyah edict, including some from within the organization itself.
Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin said the edict did not represent the group’s official stance and that it still had to go through several procedures before it could become formal and binding for Muhammadiyah followers.
We have seen our share of ridiculous edicts in the recent past, mostly from other Islamic groups, like a ban on women straightening their hair, and a ban on pluralism, secularism and liberalism. But it is harder to ignore the edict on smoking, given the political sensitivity of the issue, and given that it comes from a respectable organization.
The edict is probably just what the small band of anti-smoking activists needs to beef up its campaign. It has its work cut out, with the cigarette lobby pulling out all stops to prevent the government and the House of Representatives from ratifying the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
Indonesia is one of the few countries in the world where cigarette companies still freely advertise and sell their products, with little state control. The cigarette companies always tout the fact that they are among the biggest employers and biggest taxpayers in the country, even as they lobby for an ease on restrictions on their activities. The anti-smoking campaigners, for their part, argue that the healthcare costs to society caused by smoking far outstrip the economic benefits proclaimed by cigarette companies.
Will the Muhammadiyah edict make any difference in the ongoing battle? Will the other major Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, join the fray? Only God knows.
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