“Islam is innocent from this habit,” Arabic paper Okaz on Wednesday quoted internal medicine consultant Dr. Muhammad Ali Al-Bar, who is also a Fiqh expert, as saying. The doctor-scholar said hugging and kissing were allowed in Islam when people visit during travel. “Kisses on the cheeks and noses is a habit which is alien to us,” he said, while recalling that greeting with kisses was considered a strange behavior in many countries. He also cited medical experts who state that such kisses might be the root cause of various diseases.