I don’t like cigarettes… I’m happy that I don’t have to worry about dealing with them anymore in restaurants and bars. Ludicrous lawsuits notwithstanding, I don’t see that happening anytime soon in the Arab world where people seem to smoke everywhere.

But three Algerians have been locked up since September 21 for smoking on the street during Ramadan. The good news is that they’re likely to be freed soon. The bad news is that a court upheld their prison sentence on Tuesday; it was brought down from three years to two months.

This is a sad story (not one without precedent). First, there is no law in Algeria that forbids people from smoking in public, or that forces them to observe Ramadan. There is however one of those tricky laws against ‘offending’ the Prophet or ‘disrespecting’ Islam – essentially a blank check that gives law enforcement a pretext to lock up anyone they please. Afterall, who gets to decide what is offensive or wrong in the eyes of God? Some people are increasingly worried that radical ‘Islamists’ are gaining clout and infiltrating Algerian political and judicial establishments. No surprise. One can either give a dog a bone or worry about being bitten.

Algeria has a serious problem with extremists. I’m not only talking about those who engage in shameless acts of violence and terror – there are other ways of terrorizing people than blowing things up. A sad trend in many predominantly Muslim countries is that of radical ‘Islamists’ who take it upon themselves to preach the will of God and force it upon others. Proportionally few in number, these fanatics see everything through the lens of their religious beliefs (or so they say). Unfortunately, when they decide to punish their countrymen over matters of faith, they bring their respective communities back in time and keep their people’s minds shackled.

The poor are often the ones who get hit the hardest. The three men jailed for smoking were construction workers. Had they been real estate owners or business tycoons it is unlikely the police would have even approached them, unless it was to beg for money. Throughout the Middle East and North Africa, as is the case in most of the world, the neediest are often held to the highest religious standards. This is regrettable to say the least.

Many Arab countries have laws that forbid smoking, eating and drinking in public during Ramadan. The irony is that a big part of fasting is about strength and suffering. To make things easier, many Muslims prefer to enclose themselves in a bubble during the month – they either sleep all day or find some other way to avoid reminders of what they can’t do. Governments should not be encouraging such behavior, especially if they claim to be pious. Forcing one’s religious customs on others goes against the tenets of Islam. It is also another reason to keep ‘Islamists’ in quotation marks.

Related posts:

1. Smoking the Israeli Water Pipe
2. Ramadan Karim
3. Ramadan on France
4. Ramadan Mubarak & Happy Rosh Hashanah
5. HAPPY RAMADAN