Iraqis, liquor reacquainted after dry spell

BAGHDAD — Mohammed Majed’s makeshift bar is a trash-strewn parking lot beneath a highway overpass somewhere in the Baghdad sprawl.

It’s got half a dozen plastic tables and chairs, a barbecue grill, a cooler filled with cans of beer and a boombox pumping out Arab pop tunes. It has plenty of cheap whiskey and gin. It has the open air.

It isn’t much but, with the teetotaling Saddam Hussein and his regime no longer in charge, Mr. Majed’s establishment is hopping by mid-evening, packed with tipsy customers stopping off for a nightcap.

“Everyone expresses themselves their own way,” said Mr. Majed, a skinny 25-year-old with an easy laugh. “Some write graffiti. Some start a newspaper. We like to drink.”

For decades, Saddam the dictator tortured and punished political dissidents who protested his rule. But for years, Saddam the abstemious despot also would not even let his people enjoy a drink in public.

Up until the 1980s many Iraqis loved to drink. At parties, Baghdad’s middle-class professionals placed whole bottles of whiskey in front of each guest.

But after Saddam’s defeat in the first Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi leader got religion, trying to reinvent himself as a devout Muslim. He started going to the mosque on Fridays and sprinkling his talk with religious references. He launched a faith campaign, and in 1996 he banned drinking in all public places.

“If you were out here drinking or set up an unlicensed liquor store, you’d be arrested and jailed for at least six months,” Mr. Majed said.

Of course, Saddam could not go too far. His oldest son, Uday, was a notoriously nasty and violent drunk. For fun, Uday drank heavily and fired off assault rifles at parties.

Saddam did not ban liquor outright. He just made it hard for ordinary folks to drink outside of their homes. Sales plummeted. Many in the liquor and nightlife business — mostly Iraq’s Christian minority — left the country.

With Saddam gone, the drinking business is rolling. Because the U.S.-led occupation force won’t let Iraq impose customs on imports, liquor is cheap. Sales are way up.

Behnam Ishar, who runs a liquor store in the fancy Karada section of town, said sales have grown tenfold in the post-Saddam era.

“I have no doubt it will soon be like the 1980s,” said Mr. Ishar, a Christian Iraqi.

Not everyone is delighted that Iraqis have rediscovered their love for spirits. Sitting cross-legged in his mosque, Mullah Mohammed Baqi Mostafa al-Bayati detailed the evils of alcohol. He condemned the sharp increase in drinking among the young, predicting it will lead to anarchy.

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