Iran continues to crack down harshly on anything deemed un-Islamic. The latest fallout of the strictness of the regime is the death of ten people “after drinking home-made liquor made with methanol at a party.” More than 140 others “were sickened,” and dozens hospitalized. Alcohol is haram in Islam. Since the 1979 revolution, alcohol has been banned in Iran, so it is sold on the black market.
Iran’s treatment of dissidents during protests following the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by the morality police for not wearing her hijab properly demonstrated to the world just how far the world’s foremost Shia regime would go to protect Islamic values. So there is an underground world, as people try to avoid being detected as against the regime. For instance, the demand for alcohol has steadily grown in Iran, leading to a rise in the threat of more alcohol poisonings, found in tainted alcohol on the black market. It is unclear and undetermined whether any of the poisoning of the alcohol may be deliberate, even though it is widely accepted that unregulated and smuggled alcohol has proliferated in the black market, with methanol often added. Iran has also seen hundreds of schoolgirls intentionally poisoned to stop them from getting an education.
“Iran says 10 dead after consuming tainted booze at party,” Associated Press, June 20, 2023:
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Ten people died after drinking home-made liquor made with methanol at a party, Iranian state media reported Tuesday, as the number of such deaths increases in the Islamic Republic.
Dozens of people were reportedly hospitalized last week after drinking the tainted booze at a party in Alborz province, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital Tehran, the IRNA news agency reported.
Besides the fatalities, more than 140 partygoers were sickened, including four who were in critical condition, officials said.
Since 1979, when Iran banned the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages, methanol is often added to home-made brews as a cheaper alternative to ethanol, the alcohol that can be consumed. Drinking alcohol is punishable by a cash fine and lashes.
Iran’s 40 alcohol factories converted production to pharmaceutical needs and sanitizers.
Abbas Masjedi, the head of the country’s forensic medicine agency, said 644 people died from drinking tainted booze in 2022, up 30% from 2021, IRNA quoted him as saying….
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Christine
Methanol is never added. It’s one of the first byproducts of distillation, and is supposed to be discarded, which it always is in any commercial alcohol processing plant. If it is home brewed, then the home brewers need to know to discard that first distillate, rather than keep it just to have more product. That’s why a few years ago, there were all those reports of people in the Dominican Republic dying or getting sick after having such alcohol. No reputable brewery would allow not separating out the methanol before the rest of the brewing process
John Smith says
Infidel
I know nothing about distilling alcohol apart from drinking it (a few beers that is). But I wouldn’t nothing past those mullah’s, who wouldn’t think twice about poisoning anyone.
David M says
Nah, it’s just as Infidel said, the home brewers not being experienced enough to discard the methanol. Naughty Muslims drinking alcohol, I wonder if they got full Islamic burials after dying from doing something haram.
Transmaster says
Isn’t Fusel Oil mentioned somewhere in the sunna. 😉