Bahrain's lower chamber seeks complete ban on alcohol

Manama: Bahrain could become a dry country if a Bill backed by the parliament’s lower chamber to ban the import and sale of alcohol goes through the upper chamber.

The Islamists-dominated chamber proposed the Bill after MPs overcame their usual differences and agreed that the government would have to ban the import, production, possession and sale of alcohol in the country's territory "on land, sea and in the air.” However, the bill is not likely to get the same support in the much more liberal upper chamber. 

In their drive for imposing the ban, the lawmakers said that it should be total and should cover ground outlets as well as Bahraini airlines. Bahrain International Airport would also be covered by the ban, said parliament's foreign affairs, defence and national security committee chairman Adel Al Mouawda, a leading Salafi.

People who break the law and produce or sell alcohol would be put in prison for up to three years or made to pay a 500 Bahraini dinars fine, or both. The legal measures would be doubled in case of a repeat offence.

Shaikh Khalid Bin Ali Al Khalifa, the minister of justice and Islamic Affairs, said that the government supported the Bill, but stressed that it might not cancel out the Alcohol Law adopted in Bahrain in 1956.

However, the lawmakers said that they did not mind the use of alcohol for medical purposes, but insisted on the permission of the health ministry. It could also be used for scientific experiments and research, the MPs said.

The MPs spoke for almost three hours for the imposition of the ban and an attempt by MP Abdullah Al Dossari to limit the consumption on non-Muslims was promptly rejected.

Abdul Aziz Al Fadhel, the parliament’s affairs minister, had to intervene several times, to defend the government from the lawmakers’ vitriolic onslaughts.

“The government has endorsed the Bill, so there is no need to include it every time an MP wanted to say something,” he said.

Justice and Islamic Affairs Shaikh Khalid Bin Ali Al Khalifa said that “the people and the government had similar attitudes.”

Ali Salman, the head of Al Wefaq, the largest bloc in the lower chamber, said that Bahrain as a Muslim country should ban the sale and consumption of alcohol. “There are pillar values that should be fully respected, and banning alcohol is one of them,” he said during the debate. “Whenever we are in a Western country, we respect their laws, so there is no reason why our laws should not be respected by Westerners and others,” he said.

MP Mohammad Khalid, one of the most vociferous lawmakers and who is leaving the chamber at the end of the current term, said that six registered companies and many clandestine Asians were involved in the sale of alcohol in Bahrain.

“Even though the sale of alcohol to Muslims is not legally allowed, I have pictures of men from the Gulf who change into Western clothes near the alcohol shop so that they are allowed inside and actually buy it. Once outside, they put their traditional thobe and ghitra (headdress),” the MP told the parliament.

MP Hamza Al Dairi, representing Al Wefaq, said that he felt “weird” standing in Bahrain’s parliament to highlight the need to ban the sale of alcohol.

“I want to stress that I am not in the House of Lords, but in Bahrain, an Arab and Muslim country to talk about the need to ban alcohol. I have never understood why a drunk man who perpetrates a crime gets a lighter punishment on the grounds that he was under the influence of alcohol,” he said.

Al Mouawda said that the government should listen to the people who are against the sale of alcohol.

“Please have a referendum, and you will see how our people are against it,” he said.