Could Islam become more tolerant of drinking? A handful of scholars permit alcohol as long as it is not made from grapes and dates, because these are specifically mentioned in the Koran. But nobody dares open the debate.
"No religious scholar is ready to accept the consequences of a fatwa by now saying that beer, spirits, vodka are halal," says Anas Aboshady, a scholar at the influential al-Azhar University in Cairo.
What is more, since the scrutiny of Islam in the wake of the September 11th 2001 attacks, piety has risen in some quarters. "For many Muslims, alcohol is a question of identity," says Sami Zubaida, a sociologist at Birkbeck College in London. "Not drinking has become part of a backlash to decadence in the West, where alcohol is associated with loose living." [Chicago Tribune] Read more
