Iskandar, a 25-year-old student, has been living at the school for seven years, and his wages from a part-time job as a construction worker cover all his daily wants, including cigarettes.
He usually smokes six to 10 a day, but sometimes it’s a full pack.
“I started smoking when I was in the third grade. It was with my friends. I smoked cloves,” said Iskandar, who is originally from Sumatra. “And I haven’t been able to quit. I guess I’m addicted to it.”
His friends at the boarding school have the same story.
Adi Bandoro, 20, smoked his first cigarette when a friend in senior high school gave it to him. He hasn’t stopped.
Muhammad Alfan, an Arabic language teacher, said smoking was forbidden in the school but many students still smoked.
“It actually depends on the leader of each group, since we are divided into groups,” Alfan said. “The group I lead doesn’t smoke here because it’s forbidden.”
A Difference of Opinion
Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, but its religious leaders are divided in their views on smoking.
The Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI) has declared smoking haram, or forbidden, but only in public places, for pregnant women and for children.
But the MUI, which has issued controversial fatwas, such as banning liberal thought, has not gone all the way with smoking.
The same goes for the Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Islamic organization, which defines smoking as makruh, or a bad habit that is best to avoid.
However, the Muhammadiyah, the country’s second-largest Muslim organization, issued a fatwa in March that declared smoking haram , saying it was the same as suicide.
The difference between the two rival organizations is stark, but with almost 30 percent of Indonesians smoking, something has to give. During the NU’s national congress in March, some members joked that “Muhammadiyah followers who are smokers and insist on continuing could convert to the NU.”
Be True to Your School
Indonesia has about 24,000 traditional and modern Islamic boarding schools, with 12 to 13 million students of various ages, according to the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
The vast majority of these schools are run by clerics affiliated with the NU.
Abdul A’la is a senior manager of the Annuqayah Islamic boarding school, on the island of Madura.
A long-time supporter of the NU, he said the organization’s followers, including those who grew up in Islamic boarding schools, had no qualms about smoking.
The reason, he said, was because Islamic boarding schools historically grew from villages where most of the local workers habitually smoked cloves.
A’la, whose school is one of the biggest and oldest in Madura’s Sumenep district, said most clerics in the traditional schools saw smoking as part of their culture.
And on Madura, which is one of the biggest tobacco-producing areas of East Java, people smoke because they have easy access.
A’la said clerics and students smoked before they prayed or recited the Koran. He said the smoking habits of students were legitimized by their clerics, who in many cases were chain smokers.
“Clerics are role models,” said A’la, who also serves as deputy rector of the Sunan Ampel Islamic State Institute in Surabaya.
“Many of them are not aware of the dangers of smoking. They feel something is missing when they don’t smoke intensely. As for me, I am trying to stop now. It is very hard.”
He said because many senior clerics were smokers, there had never been a regulation in NU-run Islamic boarding schools to ban or forbid students from lighting up.
While young students were not allowed to smoke, those 15 and older commonly followed the lead of senior high school students and took up the habit.
View From the Top
A’la said most NU clerics believed smoking was makruh.
“Smoking is one of life’s pleasures, like praying and fasting. They are also our pleasures,” said Mas Abu Dzarrin, a leader at At-Tauhid Islamic boarding school in Surabaya.
Nevertheless, Dzarrin insisted that smoking was still makruh.
The Muhammadiyah, however, feels that view is too soft to stop people from lighting up.
Yunahar Ilyas, chairman of Muhammadiyah’s fatwa committee, said because suicide was forbidden in Islam, smoking must also be forbidden.
However, the group’s motives were questioned after it was revealed following the anti-smoking fatwa that Muhammadiyah had received a $395,000 (Rp 3.5 billion) grant from the US-based Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use.
In addition, Indonesia’s anti-tobacco lobby was criticized for allegedly playing the religion card in its campaign.
Yunahar said the organization had not issued the smoking fatwa for the grant money. He said the organization had agreed to return the money and had transferred about Rp 700 million so far.
He said the main reason Muhammadiyah had asked its estimated 28 million followers to stay away from tobacco was because of its health impact.
“We are not only linking our fatwa to classical Islamic books, but also today’s medical issues,” Yunahar said. “Those clerics who only rely on classical books are out of date.”
He argued that Islam had an obligation to make its followers more aware of the harmful affects of smoking. Muhammadiyah, for example, bans smoking at all of its institutions, including hospitals, schools and universities.
Time to Change
Yunahar said he realized it was not easy to tell smokers to quit or to prevent children from getting access to tobacco. However, he believed that through an intensive promotional campaign and counseling, people would understand the dangers of smoking.
He said Muhammadiyah needed time to fully implement its fatwa.
“Today’s global trend is toward not smoking,” he said. “I am sure it is not so hard to tell our followers to get away from tobacco. We are one community that does not regard smoking as part of our culture. Probably only 30 percent of our followers are smokers.”
Ma’ruf Amin, MUI chairman and a senior figure within the NU, said some MUI clerics wanted to expand the smoking fatwa beyond just public places and among women and children.
“There are different opinions among clerics,” he said. “But MUI hails the [Jakarta city administration] regulation banning smoking in buildings. I think it’s about time.”
He said the MUI, at its own pace, would remind clerics to not smoke in public, which could give followers the impression that smoking was not harmful.
Clerics needed to know the medical repercussions of smoking and he hoped they would listen to health warnings.
“We understand that it is crucial to protect a significant number of students,” Ma’ruf said.
“Change takes time, and we will do it gradually.”
To read more of this special package, follow the links below:
Big Tobacco's Big Influence Keeps Indonesia Lighting Up
Talks Over New Indonesian Tobacco Regulation Continue to Drag on
Despite Tobacco Excise Rise Indonesian Tobacco Firms’ Profits Keep Increasing
Source :http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/health/smoking-and-spirituality-an-uneasy-truce/404391 -Nov 1, 2010
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