A few days back when I was returning home from a pleasure trip to South Korea and Thailand I was a witness to a very interesting incident which irritated me tremendously to an extent that I felt the need to discuss this with all my readers.
On my last leg home after enjoying the chilly winter of Seoul and then landing onto the sun soaked beaches of Phuket, I boarded a Cathay Pacific flight from Bangkok to Karachi. I was excited coming home to some home-cooked food as the “foreign food” had taken its toll to have me longing for some daal rooti. Cathay being a Hong Kong based carrier, one generally has to request for special Muslim meals to ensure it is available on the flight. This Karachi bound flight had naturally quite a number of such requests and the air-hostess had her hands full trying to account and verify all passengers requesting the halal meal.
A few rows back she came across a Pakistani gentlemen who was quite vocal in ensuring that he be served halal meal, after all he pleaded, that he had made this request well in advance, at first the air-hostess was confused since she did not have his seat number on her halal dinner list, this seemed to aggravate the gentleman further and we over-heard him mumbling “Ham tau Halal he kha sktay hain” Translated: I can only eat Halal, was one of the few comments which he used to haggle the air-hostess. Casually eavesdropping on this Cathay Pacific goof-up it got me seriously worried as how would the airlines solve this dilemma.
It was a relief that a little later the air-hostess finally locate his name, his seat was not being accounted for, as he had swapped seats with a lady a few rows down, which he conveniently forgot to mention, once the air-hostess realized the mess she immediately apologized and asked him “What will you have to drink with the halal meal?” and he very casually but loud enough for us to hear responded “Red Wine”. At first I thought I had misheard him, but was soon reassured by other fellow passengers in my aisle that my ears had not failed me.
After all the commotion of the Halal meal he had the audacity to ask for red wine, what hypocrisy. To be honest who am I to argue with his wishes, its simply his choice if he chooses to observe his religion, but what I observe is that this serves as yet another testament to show how much has changed in our society. We on one hand claim to be Muslims overtly observing the Islamic values and traditions by offering regular prayers, going for Hajj, keeping rozas and attending taraweeh. But when it comes to sharing a glass of wine or for that matter attending an alcohol-rich dinner-ball they seem to be leading the pack, as if to have shed their Islamic values like a over coat and be ready to tackle the world with no inhibitions
I have been told that this alcohol culture is prevalent on our airline and its common to see many devout Muslims consume truckloads of whisky the minute they leave the Pakistani soil, drinking to the extent of being drunk with a number of occasions they have reported to have sexually assaulted the air-crew. Stories of many of our well known personalities ranging from the bearded class to the top bureaucracy make the daily rounds in a number of airline centers in Pakistan as well as abroad.
Personally it boils me to witness this type of hypocrisy where people appear to be devout Muslims but turn out to be party animals at night. Have the morals of our society stooped to such a level that “casual drinking in an Islamic society” have become an acceptable norm? I fail to understand this, can we have a dialog?
Comments
15 responses to “Halal & Wine Culture”
It’s quite strange and alarming that the same so-called “Muslims” that are utterly disgusted by the mention of pork, have no qualms about drinking, one of the worst sins.
Same goes for eating other non-halal meats, whereas it isn’t any different from eating pork, as far as the religion is concerned.
I agree the alcohol obsession is a bit much and the hypocricy does get to me too. I am certainly a follow of the rule ‘to each his own’ but when these pretentious people are critical of others for not being good muslims, while gulping down glasses of wine, it really ticks me off!
The anecdote is amusing however if you look around examples of the duplicity of our co-religionists are everywhere: Reminds me of a John Blushi movie where he loads up his tray with food enough for half a dozen people and creates a great fuss when he can’t find a diet drink.
Here is one more example.
I know of many devoted muslims who do not believe in either accepting or paying interest. Well and good. One such devoted muslim I personally know took a large profit sharing loan from an islamic investment group and promptly defaulted on the loan. No he didn’t lose his job or become seriously ill, the house didn’t burn down or otherwise become unhabitable, in fact he rented the house pocketed the rent and refused to pay his obligation.
I am absolutely not fazed by the choices people make for themselves. But their behaviour which damages others must be stopped.
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Somehow many things are becoming casual XYZ in Muslim Society … whether they be drinking … night life … or any other thing … hypocrisy or so-called modernity’s infusion … its going teribly wrong slowly … but deeply …!
As a Christian, I can state that the issue of hypocrisy is not limited to Muslims. While many Christians do not have dietary restrictions per se, there are certainly many instances in which we say one thing and do another.
However, normally we’re secretive about such things.
The example in which someone PUBLICLY insists on an appropriate meal, then PUBLICLY insists on an inappropriate drink, is bizarre. (But I’m sure that there are examples of this outside the Muslim world, also.)
i have witnessed the exact same episode two years back.i was returning from Singapore on Thai. There was this passenger who made a big fuss when he didnt receive his halal meal on time. anyway later on he made a demand for some liquor. the flight attendant who had served him got really pissed off and told him off. she was like “you just made such a big fuss about halal food and now you want alcohol.”her expression probably shut him up. she was loud enough for a lot of people to hear. it was enough for that guy to be embarrassed. anyway the point is that these things happen a lot on flights. our people drink like fish and are always pining for more. the stewardess was right to point out his hypocrisy.
Maybe he would have given an excuse:
“Nasha Sharab mey hota tu Nachti botal”
*smirks*
Deen-o-Dunya saath saath 😀
Salaam,
This isn’t limited to Muslims – it’s a human tendency to hold two opposite ideas in one’s head at the same time. Hopefully at some point this leads to self-reflection and recognition of one’s own hypocrisy.
Avoiding pork but drinking alcohol is quite common among Muslims – pork has other substitutes whereas alcolhol doesn’t.
It also seems that the digust for pigs is bred into us quite young and deeply – I’ve heard of many Muslims getting nauseous or throwing up if they mistakenly eat pork.
I’m not supporting this intellectual disconnect by the way; I neither drink nor eat pork.
It’s just fascinating to me how we as humans self-justify our actions and beliefs even when they do not fit into our ethical framework.
Assalam-0-alaikum,
Its now a days very common in Europe for muslims people, searching for Halal Food with shoping bag full with beers, wine and sprits.
After having this drama in front of me a thought came in my mind:
“Ammi nai kaha tha kuch bhi ho jayee Haram na Kahna”
“Mother said to me once, whatever happen dont eat(which is not the literal meaning according to urdu) Haram”
and I smiled and said to myself
“sahi hai, kah nahi raha hai.. pee raha hai, ammi ki baat par ammal ho raha hai”
“Not eating but drinking, right as mother said”
May ALLAH save us from Hypocrisy and give us Hidyat.
Regards,
As for the pork issue, i happen to be one of those people who feel completely sick even by the sight of pork.. at many times i have skipped a whole meal because i have gotten pork in my meal, it simply disgusts me.
That being said, so does alcohol, though not as much as before. I still can’t drink it, but I can now stand by someone who does. It’s a thin line, and I guess most go for the lesser of two evils.
Just to show you how much Pakis and Muslims love their alcohol, I can say with almost sure certainty that most senior government officials drink alcohol, including the religious minister. It’s quite popular amongst the bureaucrats. While in Dubai and Arabia, alcohol was a quite popular sight.
Just to show how society is so easy towards alcohol in general 🙂
I dont see a problem with people eating halaal and drinking wine,I bet none of you are perfect muslims or christians anyway, so why look at one particular rule and person only.
An animal gives a life and man argues for being halaal or pork or beef,
I also feel that all these rules were man made in the first place ( man made by a man who wrote kuran and bible etc etc )…
Another point is why be so rigid ,,, why can’t we question the rules in the first place ?
dear javed
1) its true.. none of us are perfect muslims or christians..
NOBODY IS PERFECT. I guess missunderstood the point of the discussion here; is about HYPOCRISY.
2) we can question the rule and if you have question yourself about it and find the answer.. you would definitely understand why are rules on what muslims eat or drink are important.
3) I respect your feeling towards the the Holy Quran that the HOLY QURAN is man made but to me NO HUMANS ARE CAPABLE OF WRITING the HOLY QURAN because our kowledge is limited, if you would read and understand or STUDY (even better) the Holy Quran one day, you would understand… why do i say that no humans are capable of writing the HOLY QURAN.
4) IS NOT ABOUT BEING RIGID. RULES ARE IMPORTANT IN LIFE, especially made by religion, keeps human from self destruct. think about this: how can we live life without rules? have u ever thought of how living in a country with no rules be like?
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