Islamic Pakistan to get its own whisky

Posted on February 20, 2007

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Source: money.cnn.com

January 31 2007: 9:52 AM EST

KARACHI (Reuters) — Predominantly Muslim Pakistan, where most people are banned from drinking alcohol, is set to get a domestically produced, 20-year-old single malt whisky, an official at the company making the drink said Wednesday.

The whisky is due to go on sale in July to non-Muslims, and its makers aren’t expecting huge sales.

“There is also a ban on export of alcoholic beverages abroad so this whisky will only be available to a few in Pakistan,” said Mohammad Javed, general manager at the Murree Brewery.

“We don’t want to upset the sensitivities of anyone in Pakistan, so we carry on our business quietly,” he told Reuters. [More]

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Note from Rafik Beekun: Trading in alcohol (i.e. alcoholic drinks) is prohibited in Islam–even when one is simply providing such products to others though one is abstaining from them; see hadith from Prophet Muhammad (s) below. I wonder what Islamic justification this company is using to manufacture and trade in whisky.

Truly, Allah has cursed khamr and has cursed the one who produces it, the one for whom it is produced, the one who drinks it, the one who serves it, the one who carries it, the one for whom it is carried, the one who sells it, the one who earns from the sale of it, the one who buys it, and the one for whom it is bought.[1]

[1] Reported by al Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, on reliable authority in al Qaradawi, p. 74.

Posted in: Ethics & Morals, Islam