Liquor stores back in business in Baghdad

BAGHDAD – Iraqis no longer have to settle for thick Turkish coffee, cardamom-laced tea, strawberry-flavored milk or bottled water to quench their summer thirst. Beer and alcoholic beverages are readily available again.

There are no bars outside the American-controlled Green Zone and parts of Kurdish territory in northern Iraq, for booze is sold retail only. But more shop owners are reopening behind iron gates.

Take Saif. At 19, he's barely old enough to buy liquor in Iraq; the law says 18. But the improbably young entrepreneur's family owns four liquor stores in Baghdad, and business, after years of literally being blown out from under them, is becoming brisk.

Saif, who asked that his last name not be used to protect his safety, represents an unusual resurgence. Iraq is a deeply Muslim nation that allows its citizens the right to consume alcohol. During the era of the late dictator Saddam Hussein, drinking was common. After the U.S.-led invasion, however, violence and Islamic extremists forced most liquor shops to close for a while.

Today, Saif's family stores are running full tilt after years of off-and-on business. Self-service, it isn't. To buy a bottle of Scotch, a customer confronts an iron gate that keeps him 3 feet away from Saif. By vaulting two steps back, Saif can hide behind the wall where he displays bottles of liquor.

However, even the iron gate wasn't enough to protect the store from insurgents who threw a Molotov cocktail inside the family store in the Karradah district in mid-May. "The fire cost me $10,000," Saif said.

Forced to close, he repainted the store and reopened it in late May. Islamic prohibitionists then placed a bomb near the shop. The explosion meant more losses, but he opened again a few days later.

Saif's family, who are Christians, are nothing if not resilient. They once owned 13 liquor stores all over Baghdad but lost nine to Islamist insurgents, Saif said.

Liquor distilleries can be found in all 18 of Iraq's provinces. Iraqis are well-known among Arab countries for the liquor called arrack, made of dates and colloquially called "the milk of the lioness."

Abo Dawood, another liquor-store owner, noted that "most of my customers prefer to buy arrack because it is cheaper and stronger than any other liquor."

Iraqi law bars the licensing of Muslims to sell alcohol, and the trade is in the hands of people such as Dawood, who's Yazidi, a small non-Muslim sect from the north of Iraq, and Christians.

Drinking is nonsectarian, however. Iraqis from all religions and sects consume alcohol.

In his store on Sadoon Street, Dawood offers more than a hundred kinds of beverages, including whiskey, beer, vodka and wine.

Prices range from less than $1 for Iraqi hooch to $3,000 for a single bottle of Black & White Scotch.

"The security situation is much better, and I hope it becomes even better because I believe that all Iraqis are brothers and deserve to live in peace, Dawood said."

To which a lot of Iraqis, even teetotalers, would shout: "Bsihtak!" Cheers!

Hammoudi is a McClatchy special correspondent. Mike Tharp of the Merced Sun-Star contributed to this report from Baghdad.