TURKEY
Directorate of religious affairs (Diyanet) chair Ali Erbaş said cigarettes are haram (“sinful”) in Islam due to the Maide and Araf sections of the Quran during a speech at a conference organized on February 9, National Smoking Cessation Day.
“Maide Verse 32 says ‘one who kills one person, from any faith or sect without right has killed all humans,” said Erbaş. According to Erbaş in Islam, cigarettes fall under the category of things that are “malignant” or that harm oneself, others, and the environment and look unpleasant, as described in Verse 157 of the Araf section of the Quran.
“Those who say cigarettes are haram point to this verse. It says, ‘Clean things are halal and foul things are sinful.’ Nobody says that cigarettes aren’t foul,” Erbaş said. “I state once again that cigarettes are haram as they make humans stray from their essential quality of being a superior being.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has been a strong opponent of smoking and cigarettes, explicitly urging his supporters to quit smoking.