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View Full Version : Smokers irrational, like animals?

Hogarth
22 Oct 2007, 03:41 PM
Mon Oct 22, 11:08 AM ET



KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Smokers are like animals that do not think rationally, a Malaysian hardline Islamist cleric said at the weekend.

Islam discourages the faithful from smoking, just as it bars them from alcohol, said Nik Aziz Nik Mat, spiritual leader of the Parti Islam se-Malaysia, which seeks to turn the country into an Islamic state that punishes thieves by lopping off their hands.

Smokers did not use their brains because they continued to let themselves be addicted to the habit, despite knowing it was bad for their health, the Star newspaper quoted Nik Aziz as saying.

"People who do not want to think are like animals," Nik Aziz told the launch of an anti-smoking campaign in Kota Baru, the capital of Malaysia's northeastern state of Kelantan, which is his party's last remaining bastion.

Nik Aziz, himself a non-smoker, has earlier said smokers would not be included among his party's candidates at Malaysia's next general elections, widely expected to be called as soon as early next year.
Slar
22 Oct 2007, 03:58 PM
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Smokers are like animals that do not think rationally, a Malaysian hardline Islamist cleric said at the weekend.Because hardline Islamist clerics are just all about being rational.
silentpaul
22 Oct 2007, 04:00 PM
"We resent this."

http://musicolinuxien.lost-oasis.net/MesImages/animals.jpg
Breeze
22 Oct 2007, 04:07 PM
http://www.animalattack.info/bibliotheque/manimal05.jpg
Marlowe
22 Oct 2007, 04:31 PM
two comments... first, when people (rightly) talk about the bad parts of smoking, drugs, drinking, etc., they always leave part of the equation out, namely, that all of these things are fun and have up-sides to them along with the downsides. so yes, it can be entirely rational that a human being can take into consideration the upsides and the downsides of smoking and make a rational choice to smoke based upon a cost-benefit analysis.

second comment, whilst it's hard to call animals 'rational', since that implies a sense of consciousness that animals may or may not have, it is perfectly appropriate to call them 'logical'. in fact, very few things animals do aren't logical. so by comparing humans to animals unfavourably, this cleric is exposing his ignorance.

lesson to be learned here: smoke'em if you got'em
doves
23 Oct 2007, 08:13 AM
Mon Oct 22, 11:08 AM ET



KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Smokers are like animals that do not think rationally, a Malaysian hardline Islamist cleric said at the weekend. .


It's true. So what?

Overall I probably have more regard for animals anyway. :D
patio
23 Oct 2007, 12:31 PM
This guy is more of an infidel than you or I.
Guidedbymonkeys
26 Oct 2007, 02:35 PM
There goes my plan of going to Mecca and selling Marlboro's out of the back of my van. Thanks Nik Aziz Nik Mat. :(

GBM
.....
My family crest is a picture of a barracuda eating Neil Armstrong
patio
26 Oct 2007, 03:14 PM
Well luckily for you Mecca isn't in Malaysia.