Muslims Get Drunk, Too
August 15, 1953 — The Chicago Daily Tribune

The Mossadegh Project | October 20, 2014    


The Chicago Daily Tribune squeezed in this short editorial on alcohol laws in Iran, with its obligatory Omar Khayyam reference, in their Saturday edition.



The Chicago Daily Tribune

THE JUG’S STILL
BENEATH THE BOUGH


Prohibition is written into the Mohammedan creed. Last February, then, it may have seemed slightly redundant for the Iranian parliament to pass a prohibition law for a country already Moslem.

Prohibition was to have become effective last Tuesday in Iran, but at the last minute Premier Mossadegh, who is named after Mohammed, decreed postponement for one year. The government said that prohibition would cost 5 million in needed excise taxes and would throw 20,000 devout believers out of their jobs in the Iranian breweries and rum distilleries. Also, Iran is hoping to get on a more friendly basis with Russia, and cutting off imports of soviet vodka would not help matters.

It is being generally recalled that there was a jug of wine in Persia at least as far back as the days of Omar.




Related links:

Omar Can RelaxThe Philadelphia Inquirer, August 16, 1953

Mossadegh Is Called Secret Cookie NibblerAP, April 11, 1954

Caviar A La Mossadegh — U.S. editorial, February 4, 1953



MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”

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