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Religion and tobacco
"Religion has a strong
influence in the Eastern
Mediterranean Region. Religion
is a part of the daily life of
individuals in this Region. All
religions call upon people to
look after their health, to
avoid health hazards and risks
and to raise their standards of
hygiene."
Dr Hussein A. Gezairy
Regional Director
to the Eastern Mediterranean
Region
"Religion in many societies
played a key role in education,
which created additional
opportunities for improved
health education."
Dr M. H. Khayat
Senior Policy Adviser
to the Regional Director
Linking religion with health
promotion has been one of the
main interests of the Regional
Office for the Eastern
Mediterranean. Many activities
have been undertaken in line
with this. One of the most
important steps was the
publishing of the first edition
of: The Right Path to Health;
Health Education through
Religion; Islamic Ruling on
Smoking in 1996 as an attempt to
tackle tobacco use through
religion; the second edition of
this publication was issued
during the year 2000.
Now, religion represents a new
frontier for public health in
terms of partnership
opportunities. To explore these
opportunities, a meeting on
Tobacco and Religion was held at
the WHO Headquarters (WHO/HQ) in
Geneva, Switzerland on 3 May
1999. The meeting was held with
the goal of exploring new
partnerships and strengthening
existing ones to facilitate
tobacco control activities.
Both the Regional Office’s
publication, the Islamic Ruling
on Smoking and the WHO/HQ
meeting report can be found
below, together with the
Christian View on Smoking, which
was issued by the Coptic Church
in Egypt upon the request of the
Regional Office. The Tobacco
Free Initiative met the Pope of
the Coptic Church to introduce
the role of his church in
combating the tobacco epidemic.
After the visit, the Pope
requested one of the Bishops to
write on the Christian view on
smoking which was then
translated into English, posted
on our website and printed as
part of the World no Tobacco Day
2000 advisory kit.
Also included below is an annex
of the smoking forbidding laws
and regulations issued by The
Vatican on 14 June 2002, in
three languages: Arabic, English
and Italian.
Council of Islamic Ideology
declared tobacco use as an
‘un-Islamic’ act
Islamabad, Pakistan, Dawn
newspaper, 26 May 2000
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