ISIS beheads top police official for smoking cigarettes

If the Marlboro Man lived in the Islamic State he’d get beheaded before he died of cancer.

Along with bans on music and drinking, ISIS has imposed a ban on smoking.

The Islamic extremists reportedly beheaded one of their own for smoking cigarettes. No mercy was shown to the high-ranking police official and Egyptian national whose headless body was discovered near a power plant in the Syrian city of Deir-al-Zor. Written on his corpse was the phrase “O, Sheikh this is munkar (hateful and evil thing).” He had a cigarette in his mouth. The man was the deputy “emir” of the al-Hesbah force in the area.

The group claims smoking as a sin because it is a “slow suicide.”

In a statement issued last year, ISIS’ “Preaching Office” said:

“Every smoker should be aware that with every cigarette he smokes in a state of trance and vanity is disobeying god. Three days following the issuance of the statement, selling tobacco and shisha (hookah tobacco) 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.”

Abu Mohammed Hussam, a founder of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), told The Independent just how serious smoking offenses are taken in the Islamic State. “The first time he will be arrested and flogged (40 lashes),” he said. “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.”

Shops selling cigarettes and hookahs have been shut down by ISIS and street vendors have been barred from selling tobacco products in Raqqa, Syria, one of the extremists’ most coveted holdings. Disobedient shops were burned to the ground.

A cafe manager said his business was suffering under ISIS’ ban. “No customers come in,” he said. “Many of our customers are smokers, and they do not enjoy a cup of coffee if they can’t smoke a cigarette with it. They are indirectly forcing us to close the cafe.”

Others resort to crossing borders to enjoy a cigarette. When aid workers come enter areas held by ISIS they throw their cigarettes out the car windows and turn Islamic nasheed (chant) on the stereo.

ISIS has publicly burned millions of cigarette packs In Iraq and Syria.

Source : chicago.suntimes.com