You may have seen them on campus and you may even be smoking out of one right now. The hookah, also known as the argile, shisha, nargile, hubbly-bubbly and so on, has caught fire on this campus like a freshly lit coal.

Perhaps some of you have no idea what I’m talking about. The hookah is a water pipe used to smoke flavored tobacco (or other things, but what you do with your hookah is your business). Its origins are not quite clear. We can say with some degree of certainty that it originates somewhere between India and Iran, but exactly where is unsure. It is evident that the hookah met the western world through the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over much of the Arab lands in which the Hookah was popular.

In the 19th century, it became very much a symbol of the east. The pipe fascinated orientalists coming from the west, frequently documenting its presence in their travel logs. It became so fashionable at one point that pictures could not be taken unless the hookah was present. It was to be recorded as part of a culture, part of a people.

Today that fashion craze is back. It started up again within the last 10 years. I am not quite sure how it happened, but I watched it evolve. I remember a few years ago when friends of mine and I were spotted on campus with one; we were looked at as if we were walking around with the Holy Grail. People would frequently stop by and ask what it is and ask to smoke, once their skepticism wore off.

Now this is no longer the case. In the few years I have been at this University, I have watched the boom happen right here in what is surely a microcosm of hookah culture worldwide. Surely this is tied to marijuana culture and its popularity on college campuses, but the hookah revolution has spread further then the grassy hippie-filled fields of universities.

The hookah is now present in many Arab American households. It has become a way to symbolize the heritage. It has become a way to hang on to what you are so far away from. In fact, the hookah in the Arab household has also become a fashion statement. Much like “The Da Vinci Code” in the trendy-posing-as-educated white homes, if you cannot find a hookah in an Arab house, their authenticity as Arabs may be questioned.

It all hit me earlier this month on the first sunny day. Like animals that have grown tired of hibernation, everyone was outdoors in bathing suits and shorts, even though it was only 60 degrees. Yet there, spread out in between clumps of sunbathers, were several hookahs. The hookah revolution is here.

Unfortunately, it saddens me. It saddens me that the hookah has become the ambassador of Arab culture. It is not even originally Arab, thought it is widely popular in the Arab world today. Hookahs, along with belly dancers, have become the symbols of Arab culture in America today. The civilization, which brought the world the Arabic numeral system and algebra; preserved Greek philosophy for centuries and developed chemistry and medicine while Europe was in the dark, is now represented here in the U.S., not by these accomplishments, but rather by scantily clad dancing women and smoking devices.

These accomplishments of ancient Arab civilization are centuries old, yet modern Arab civilization has a rich culture filled with literature, art and music, all which are drowned out by the hubbly-bubbly.

Part of the blame for this lies on Arab Americans who struggle to assimilate with American culture and are thrilled by the attention they get when some one is inquiring about their “bong” or about a woman that can shake. Arabs here in the United States have an obligation to be ambassadors of a proud culture and cannot allow the demands of a culture driven by consumerism and sexuality to affect the message they carry into the western world.

The hookah revolution is the resurrection of an unhealthy trend. Surely it offers a glimpse of the east, but only as well as a cigarette defines western culture to the rest of the world. On college campuses, there is a slightly higher understanding of Arabs then in the rest of the country. In many places around this country, Arabs are still seen as rag wearing terrorists, yet at universities, they are symbolized by hookahs and dancing women.

I am by no means asking anyone to give up his or her hookah. That would just be terrible. Yet, it is our duty, Arabs and Americans alike, as the future of educated America, to change the stereotypes about Arab culture and broaden the understanding of foreign lands here at home.