Manama: A Lebanese star has been asked by the Algerian police to show reverence to Ramadan and Muslims and refrain from smoking.
Famous singer Yara, a Christian, was being driven from Setif, east of the capital Algiers, to Constantine, also in the east, when she took out a cigarette.
Her driver, an Algerian who was fasting, asked her to put out the cigarette, but she refused and kept on smoking, local Arabic daily Al Chorouk reported.
Angered by her reaction, the Algerian drove the car to a police station in the city of Chelghoum Laïd and reported her to the police for failing to show due respect to Muslims.
The police reportedly told her that she was not allowed to smoke in public during Ramadan in Muslim Algeria, even though she was a Christian.
Adult Muslims are expected to observe Ramadan by abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking and indulging in sexual activities from sunrise until sunset. However, fasting is undesirable for those who are on a journey, the sick, pregnant women and nursing mothers.
The daily added that most of the Muslim performers at the festival hosted by Setif did not fast and claimed that they had the permission to eat and drink “as they were travelling”.
