Unhappy hookahs

An article in today's Times highlights the impact the smoking ban will have on the shisha community. "On Sunday," the paper reports, "the last charcoal will be lit, the last shisha will be brought to the table and a culture that stretches from Morocco all the way back to ancient Persia will be snuffed out." Full article HERE.

A special guest at The Savoy on Monday was Ibrahim El-Noor of the Edgware Road Association who has been fighting - albeit belatedly - the smoking ban which owners fear will result in the closure of many of Britain's 600 shisha bars.

I first met Ibrahim 15 months ago when he took me to a local hookah bar and showed me how to smoke shisha. There is very little tobacco involved - it's mostly fruit peel filtered through water. Shisha smoking, he told me, is a social activity enjoyed by different age groups and different sections of the community. According to Ibrahim, "For many young people, who do not drink or go to pubs and bars, the main leisure and social activity is to visit a shisha café. Here, they can socialise, debate and discuss their affairs without being intoxicated, introduced to drugs, or subjected to violence and anti-social behaviour."

The smoking ban, says Ibrahim, will destroy this culture and a centuries old tradition. He is holding on to the hope that legal action could lead to shisha bars being excluded from the ban (as they are in New York). Short of funding a potentially expensive - and therefore crippling - legal battle, we have offered to help in other ways. On Monday, for example, we gave him a platform to publicise his campaign and he responded with a short, moving speech that will have registered, I'm sure, with many of the MPs or peers present. If he can persuade just one of them to introduce a private members' bill on the subject, they may - just may - stay in business.

Comments

[Bernie]

It won't happen but neither should it happen. Why should people who own Shisha bars be treated any differently to people who own pubs, restaurants, private clubs, bingo halls, offices, etc.?

Why would you lend your support to such a thing? Why do you agree there should be a law banning smoking in public places but there should be some "exemptions"?

[Carl]

Hear, Hear Bernie,
If there is the possibility of introducing a private members bill calling for exemptions,then surely it should encompass the whole of the hospitality industry and not just one particular group.

[Joyce]

I absolutely agree with Bernie and Carl. How on earth could an exemption only to shisha bars be justified?

[Jenny]

We are having our culture and centuries' old traditions destroyed and there's a lot more people over here enjoy smoking tobacco in pubs/clubs/bars etc. than those who smoke shisha.Post July 1st I very much doubt my nearest 'local' (a wet pub) will stay in business.

[Poppy]

I totally support exemptions for shisha bars. Along with that I totally support exemptions for all businesses that want to be exempted.

The government needs to get it's head back to where it was in 2000. They had the right idea then, and I had high hopes that new millennium would be the era of grown-ups and respect for the public's intelligence (see link):

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20001002/ai_n14348825

[Poppy]

Argh! The URL text wrap got me again!

Try this:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/
mi_qn4158/is_20001002/ai_n14348825

[Belinda]

Absolutely Poppy. If exemptions are allowed to shisha bars it gives everybody else a very good case for them, on the grounds of community cohesion, tradition, whatever.