Rally coordinator Nasrudin Khoiriza said the edict would do more harm than good as thousands of workers and many other people who made a living from tobacco sales would be affected. "The fatwa will not solve the problem but create many problems. It will deprive cigarette company workers, tobacco farmers, street vendors and many more," Nasrudin said. There are about 40,000 cigarette company workers in Malang alone.

Your comments:

Once again, money talks. Financial considerations always take precedence over health. What the students don't realize is the financial and emotional burdens that each family will have to endure when the smoker gets cancer or some other debilitating illness. Unfortunately, one can never put an old head on young shoulders, thus someone more mature has to make the decisions for them.

Exbrit
Probolinggo, East Java

I would have expected educated people like these students to have taken a more constructive approach to the issue, rather than opting for no change. Siding with the tobacco companies, they condemn their fellow citizens to a slow death by an addictive drug.

Educated, thinking people might have opted for lobbying the government to help tobacco farmers make the transition from growing tobacco to growing something much more useful - food, and factory workers to food processing. But no, they seem to see neither the case for the haram status of killer tobacco nor the need to facilitate positive change in the community; grow food not drugs.

Nairdah
Sydney

The holy Koran said that whatever harms or hurts your body is haram. "Allah loves not those who do mischief." Koran, 28:77. Physicians have already said that cigarettes harm people. So cigarettes are haram.

Alatif
The United States

No matter how much the government tries to increase the price of cigarettes, when smokers are addicted they will always try to find the money to buy them, even if they're poor.

Some even smoke because they think it's cool, like many of the high school students. No, higher prices won't help because it's a matter of lifestyle. Poor people will just spend more money since they're already addicted.

Cigarette makers will only make more money or even if they lose sales in volume they make it up in profit with higher prices.

Joko S.
Jakarta

A good Muslim and Muslimah must abide by the fatwa. Among the mazhab only Imam Shafi'i made a fatwa that smoking is makruh (discouraged). In other mazhab's fatwas smoking is haram.

Saidin
Kuala Lumpur

I despise smokers. Smoking even killed my father, who passed away in 2008 from cancer. However, I am against the fatwa making smoking haram.

The fact is that the export of cigarettes has brought Indonesia plenty of income, a portion of which is used for the welfare of us Indonesian citizens, hopefully.

Cigarette companies have also done their duty of providing health warnings on the packs, stating the consequences of smoking.

The warnings are even read out in the TV ads.

Therefore, I think it is, in the end, the right of the consumer whether to continue smoking or not. As long as the smoker is not younger than 18, there is nothing to do.

Seth
Jakarta

Smoking is bad for you. It is bad for others around you. But it is legal. Nicotine is one of the most highly addictive substances on earth. The government and religious groups need to provide ways for people to quit the habit, not just condemn them.

Show compassion and understanding so that good people can quit the habit and whoever is left can made an informed choice. Just making what was one day "discouraged" into a "sin" overnight is not fair to people who have strong faith and religious values.

As for the economic impact, it is loss of taxation for the government and people who have enough money to plant massive lawns and build hotels, shopping malls and apartments all in one structure.

Charles Reid
Jakarta

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