Indonesia is the world fifth-largest tobacco market and Southeast Asia's biggest economy and ban on public smoking is hotly debated, especially by Muslims-the most populous majority nation in Indonesia.

Recently, about 700 Muslim people had gathered in West Sumatra to debate on fatwas on a range of areas from polygamy, smoking and yoga. Participants were spitted into 2 camps: one of those who want to make smoking “haram” (a sin) and the second who favored “makruh”.

In the end, after a heated debate, The Ulema Council decided to ban smoking in public, or smoking by council members of MUI, children and pregnant women. Problem of smoking in Indonesia, where almost 90% of population is Muslims, is discussed from 2 opposite points of view. The first is smoking is dangerous for health and it should be banned and regarded as “haram”.

“Makruh means something that God hates, so how come the ulemas still smoke? I am sure those men wouldn't have the heart to see their daughters and wife smoke, so why didn't they just make it forbidden,” Fauziah Fauzan, headmistress of the Diniyyah Putri Islamic girls' boarding school questioned. The opposition accentuated the role of the tobacco industry in Indonesia's economy and this point could not be ignored. If smoking is going to be regarded as “haram” that means “sin”, so the tobacco factories are also haram and thinking more widely, the major part of Indonesian economy can become a big haram.