March 9, 2010 - In yet another far-reaching, invasive exercise of sharia law over basic human liberty, one of the country’s largest Muslim organizations on Tuesday issued a fatwa banning followers from lighting up, comparing it to suicide. Yunahar Ilyas, chairman of the fatwa committee at Muhammadiyah, said that since suicide was forbidden in Islam, so should smoking also be forbidden. “Smoking negatively affects our bodies, killing us slowly,” he said, “therefore it is haram [forbidden] because Islam forbids suicide.” The decision was reached after the fatwa body convened a meeting in Yogyakarta on Sunday. Click below for story.
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