Iraqi alcohol ban targets Christians and minorities, lawmakers argue

Christian and minority lawmakers in Iraq are rolling back a 2016 alcohol ban that officially went into full effect, arguing it discriminates against non-Muslim communities.

The law, passed half a decade ago, faced a fresh push this week after customs officials ordered a ban on alcohol products on Saturday, the BBC reports.

A shopkeeper shows some Turkish alcoholic beverages to a Kurdish man at a store in Arbil, north of Baghdad, on December 8, 2010. (Reuters/Azad Lashkari)

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Christian lawmakers in Iraq’s parliament – ​​who account for only five of the 329 seats – have filed a lawsuit claiming the ban is undemocratic and targets minority groups who share Muslim practices as well as the consumption of alcohol. Don’t follow businesses that depend on sales.

Iraq, a predominantly Muslim nation, passed the law after Mahmoud al-Hasan, a former judge and MP from the Iraqi State of Law coalition, argued that the permission for the consumption and sale of alcohol was violated by Article 2 of the Iraqi Constitution. Violates the law that runs counter to it. for Muslim teachings.

Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol, but some minority groups have argued that it is an individual decision that violates the principles of the country’s democratic parliamentary republic outlined by its 2005 constitution.

Steve Ibrahim, a liquor store owner, smokes in the city of Qaraqosh, south of Mosul, Iraq, on April 13, 2017. (Reuters / Marco Jurica)

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Despite the 2016 ban, alcohol could be purchased in liquor stores or licensed bars in Iraq until last month.

Now it appears that Iraqi authorities will start enforcing the law which prohibits the sale, import or production of alcohol and fines offenders up to 25 Iraqi dinars, which is about $17,000, the BBC reported.

Some are concerned that the ban will only increase the sale of alcohol on black markets.

An operation to smuggle alcohol across the border near Sulaymaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad, March 20, 2010. (Reuters/Jamal Penjveni)

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Christian lawmakers, called the Babylon Movement, have argued that not only is the policy unconstitutional, but they claim it contradicts a February decree that imposed a 200% duty on all imported alcoholic beverages for a period of four years .

It is not clear what the next steps will be in easing the Iraqi alcohol ban or whether Baghdad’s Supreme Court will back down on a recently implemented policy.