Club, shops attacked in Iraq alcohol clampdown

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Men armed with steel pipes last week raided a Christian social club and vandalized liquor shops in Baghdad, raising fears of a creeping fundamentalism as Iraq's new government gets to work.

Concerns have been stoked by the inclusion in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's new government of a Shi'ite militia that once sought to impose strict Islamic laws and by the return from self-imposed exile of its leader, cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

An official with the Baghdad provincial council, controlled primarily by Maliki's Dawa party, denied reports it was behind the raids on the club, which has a bar, and on alcohol shops, most of which close down for part of the Muslim holy month of Muharram.

A central government spokesman also condemned the raids.

"Our state is moderate and upholds the rights of everybody. Everyone has a right to his opinion, his religion and his personal freedoms," said Ali Moussawi, a media adviser for Maliki.

But witnesses said police cars blocked off a street while a squad of men stormed into the Ashurbanipal cultural society and that police officers tried to get into another well-known club saying they were investigating the sale of alcohol.

Read more: http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE70G45320110117

[old mark]

1. In another few years, it will be as it was before, with different names...

K&R

[davidthegnome]

2. Anyone else read this and think of

the so called "noble experiment"? In America we created bootleggers, a whole new generation of organized crime and crime lords that existed, thrived - and to some extent continues to thrive to this day. We did this by denying people their right to get good and smashed when they want to. Or by denying people the simple freedom to have a glass of wine or a beer every now and then. This was largely the result of the religious power within our government and populace at the time.

Generally speaking, combining government with religion in any form is a recipe for disaster, crime and even (in extreme circumstances) revolt.

Well, I tip my hat to those who damn them all and have a drink (or three) anyway - as my great grandfather once did. You can take away peoples rights, freedom, privacy - you can even torture and execute them - but if you try to take away our alcohol, you're in for it.

[4saken]

3. Co-opting God's supposed will...

...is always dangerous. Especially when said "will" is enforced by a government. But the premises that the deity exists or that their dogma need not be questioned goes unquestioned in a Christian/Islamic environment. The needed arguments against Islam can't be made from the Christian perspective, in this case because Christianity makes claim to God's supposed will as well. It's not easy to get them past their line of reasoning that "God suggested it therefor it is true/good". It can help to delve directly to the supposed "objectiveness" of God's character, the Euthyphro Dilemma and from whence goodness derives(from their results, or from God).

[toddwv]

4. I'm sure none of us are shocked.

We helped push Iran into the arms of an Islamic theocracy, now we see that we've also set Iraq on the same path.