How do Muslims feel about alcohol?

By Rasha Almaqaleh

Before moving to Europe, I had never seen alcoholic drinks except on TV. Due to religious reasons, alcohol is not part of our food culture and we are taught to despise it. In Islam, drinking alcohol is considered a sin. Accordingly, alcoholic beverages are prohibited in Yemen, a Muslim country, and can neither be sold in markets nor consumed in public. So, as a person who comes from such a cultural background which has zero tolerance for drinking alcohol, how do I get along living in a Western society where alcoholics are regularly sold in supermarkets and occasionally served in social gatherings?

I still remember my first time encounter with wine bottles: it was a couple of years ago, I was with my husband and my child at a grocery store in Rome, shopping for some snacks and there! I saw so many wine bottles standing on the shelves. I was nonplussed for a moment and I just wanted to flee the scene! All the alarming bells rang in my head and I felt as if I transgressed my culture values by just passing by wine bottles.

It was such a confusing feeling which I have experienced over and over each time I would go to the grocery store and see the stacked wine bottles. It was exactly like crossing a rough river, leaving people I know on the other side, and by ‘people I know’ I mean ‘my culture values’. My first inner reaction was ‘scare and guilt’.

Moreover, coming across alcoholic beverages is not restricted to grocery stores, but also extends to social life. I remember the time when I was invited to a birthday party of one of my German acquaintances. The moment I entered the restaurant where the party was held and saw that almost everyone was holding a glass of alcohol, I felt so uncomfortable. It was as if every glass was screaming: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” But since glasses don’t usually scream, I guess the scream was just in my head.

It got even louder when I saw the waitress coming towards us, carrying a drink tray! The tray had glasses of transparent gassy drink (I knew later it was champagne!) and also some glasses of a fruity juice. When the waitress offered us the drinks, the scream in my head got so loud that it nearly deafened both my ears. I don’t really know how I managed to smile and say “NO, THANK YOU!” while what I actually wanted to say was: “HOW DARE YOU!”

I hoped that it would end at this point and the tray would just go away, but the birthday girl rushed to draw my attention to the non-alcoholic drink. I couldn’t explain to her that it was difficult for me to reach out my hand and pick up a glass of fruit juice from among champagne glasses! Instead, I said that I wasn’t thirsty at all! It was more polite and, more importantly, less seemingly crazy.

I was relieved when the drink tray moved away from us, even though I was really thirsty and could use a fruit juice. I did need to drink something to help me swallow all the cultural mess that was going on around me, especially when my friends made a toast and clinked their glasses. Clinking glasses is a very wine-related tradition and we aren’t familiar with it AT ALL!

 While my fellows were busy talking and laughing and really having a good time, I was utterly distracted by the screams in my head, the glasses in my friends’ hands and the waitress with the tray. I was feeling miserable but trying so hard to contain the uneasiness. 

That party was a cultural remark for me.  Generally speaking, people who come from highly religious cultures that practice a strict ban on alcoholics in terms of sacred rules e.g. Islam, understandably they get a sense of unease around alcoholic beverages. Some might even feel offended when alcoholic drinks are sold or served.

A couple of years ago, and in order to understand the whole drinking thing, I asked my Italian friend whether she drinks or not and whether she ‘gets drunk’ and how does it feel! She laughed at my question but we had such an interesting conversation that was followed by a couple of emails.

She explained to me that wine is just food for them and that there is a huge difference between drinking and ‘getting drunk’. She said that it takes more than one drink to get drunk. Interestingly, she argues that most Muslims are ‘lightweight’ drinkers, which means that they get tipsy just after a small amount of alcohol. She literally said: "The most drunken people here are Muslims and the result is very bad. They become more violent. Completely in the street after drinking one beer” she also added: “My 100-year-old grandmother will never get drunk after one beer!"

I still cannot explicitly agree with her opinion but I also cannot refute it. I’ve read somewhere that how one’s body handles drinks lies in their genes, not in their religious believes. However, during my stay here, I have attended a number of social events where alcohol was occasionally served, and I noticed that my Western acquaintances who had a couple of drinks in these occasions were reasonably steady on their feet; they managed somehow to maintain their balance, spoke coherently and politely. Remarkably, they never got aggressive or crossed any line. But I still don’t know how “Muslims”, or Arabs, handle alcohol and whether they really get violent or not.  

Ultimately, living with cultural differences is exhausting and needs a continuous adjustment. It also takes a while for a newcomer to familiarize themselves with the unfamiliar and ease into their new world. That is why after a while, the sight of wine bottles at grocery stores no longer evokes fear and guilt. I don’t drink alcohol and I don’t smoke. So, alcoholic beverages are just as cigarettes for me: they are both products that are sold in markets and only damage one’s health. And that’s the best adjustment I could make!