ISIL bans cigarettes

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    ISIL bans cigarettes

    Middle-Eastern 'Death Cult' Islamic State has banned cigarette smoking in the areas that it controls, punishing nicotine addicts by breaking their fingers, flogging them in public and even beheading them.

    Residents of the ISIL-controlled Syrian city of Raqqa are unable to enjoy a cigarette without fear of physical harm. Smoking has been banned as a form of "slow suicide" by the cult, and punishments can be severe – even fatal.

    The "preaching office" of the group released a statement banning the sale of cigarettes, which follows bans on mathematics, music and photographs of people in shop windows.

    "Every smoker should be aware that with every cigarette he smokes in a state of trance and vanity is disobeying God," the statement read, according to Al Monitor.

    "Three days following the issuance of the statement, selling tobacco and shisha will be strictly prohibited and those who insist on selling them will bring injustice upon themselves and upon other people. All tobacco quantities will be burned and the seller will be punished according to Sharia."

    Locals have said the punishments for breaking the ban are severe.

    "The first time he will be arrested and flogged (40 lashes)," Raqqa-based activist Abu Muhammed Hussam told The Independent.

    "If he smokes again, he will be whipped and imprisoned. On the third occasion, he will be taken to a camp in the countryside and fined a large sum of money."

    Recently, a senior ISIL police officer was found beheaded with a cigarette stuffed in his mouth and anti-smoking messages scrawled on his body.

    Café managers have complained that the ban has hurt their trade, saying that people are enjoying their coffee with cigarettes at home, and aid workers crossing into ISIL territory from neighbouring Turkey are ditching cigarettes before they reach checkpoints.

    Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/02/14/10/40/death-cult-isis-bans-cigarettes#tOZbStVKP22XvtXH.99
 
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