CNN - Dubai: Hookah Heaven

[Coexist]

CNN just did a Dubai piece - where they went to Dubai and interviewed ordinary citizens and got their opinions on the matter.

Almost all that I saw were smoking hookahs.

What is up with that??

[htuttle]

1. Sheesh(a)! It's probably just tobacco!

Flavored tobacco, with pieces of apple or fruit, etc... is very popular in the Middle East, ya know.

IIRC, Islam tends to frown upon intoxicants like hashish as much as alcohol.

[Coexist]

2. Lol! I figured it was - but it is strange to see that in a cafe

or where ever they were.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

5. I'm told there's a place like that in Houston

where you can rent a hookah with a fresh strilized mouthpiece and your choice of flavored tobaccos.

Alas, I'm also told by those in the know that even though a hookah may be used solely for tobacco, it is still considered drug paraphernalia and possession is punishable under federal law.

[clarknyc]

8. True.

There's a middle eastern cafe a couple blocks away from me here in Brooklyn that offers the very same thing. It's culturally typical.

[kenny blankenship]

3. It's also a capital of the sex slave trade

So i hear.
But Bush wouldn't care about that, would he?

[RagingInMiami]

4. It's mostly tobacco

It's like a social thing for them, they sit around and pass the moutpiece. Considering that muslims are not allowed to drink booze, I guess they have to do something.

[PsychoDad]

6. Popular in many Arab Countries

Tobacco flavored with fruit juice and pulp called Shisha is smoked. It's often enjoyed with coffee. (Tobacco and coffee - an international favorite) The tobacco is not burned but heated with a coal from above that causes it to smoke slowly.

Peace.

On edit: A link

http://www.hookah-shisha.com/

[DinahMoeHum]

7. You see them in the tea-and-coffee houses in the ME. . .

and oftentimes, there are chess and backgammon players and bloggers, too.

that's when and where most business deals are transacted, BTW.

:evilgrin:

[izzybeans]

9. In college we had a few friends from Pakistan.

they brought their Hookah everywhere, sans the tobacco. It's not the UAE, but I bet in public its tobacco and in private its entirely something else.

[Generator]

10. What do you have against ladies of the night?