He said the timing of the law is suspicious in that it coincided with the Supreme Council of Islamic Awakening conference held Oct. 23 in Baghdad. "The conference was held under the auspices of [Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah] Ali Khamenei's representative and adviser Ali Akbar Velayati, which indicates that the conference’s goal was to stress the loyalty to Khamenei’s Islam and promote the Islamization of the state.”
Nouri al-Maliki, the former prime minister of Iraq, gave a speech at the conference that focused on the success of Islamization efforts in Iraq, while at the same time, Mahmoud al-Hassan, a member of the Maliki-led State of Law Coalition, was in parliament defending the law to ban alcohol. In his speech, Maliki stressed that Islamists working on the Islamization project must not be distracted by the wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Meanwhile, other critics are focusing on the law’s economic dimensions.
A main importer of alcohol told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The value of imported alcohol in 2015 reached over $800 million, and other quantities of alcohol were smuggled into Iraq with an estimated value of more than $300 million.”
He warned about organized crime groups associated with politicians and how they could control the black market for alcohol and make profits. He noted that the economic crisis that has been plaguing the country since the drop in oil prices has made it imperative for some parties — and the militias associated with them — to search for new sources of funding.
Faeq al-Sheikh Ali, a parliament member with the civil movement, alluded to the same point in an Oct. 25 televised conference from inside the parliament. He spoke about influential Islamic parties with affiliated militias that share the revenues of bars, nightclubs and casinos. These entities, he said, were behind passing the law and will use it to make money in the black market trade of alcoholic beverages.
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