The Booze Is Back in Baghdad

The mullahs know it. Nadeem al-Jaberi, a founder of the religious Fadhila (Virtue) Party, says he's conducted a study that shows mosque attendance is down even as drinking is up. (He jokes that he's too embarrassed to publish the results.) A Shiite preacher in northern Baghdad, declining to be named because he serves an area still watched by Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army hard-liners, says: "The young men who used to come to the mosque are rarely showing their faces, and if they pass by the mosque they just say, 'Salam alaikum'." Some of the bearded men feel lucky the secular slippage hasn't been worse. "With all these changes, the liberal forces in Iraq have not taken advantage," says al-Jaberi. "If they could do that, they definitely could change the path things are taking."

But the years of sectarian killing have driven many open-minded Iraqis out of the country, especially the educated middle class and the Christians who once dominated the liquor trade. And those who have stayed are reluctant to push their luck. School administrators have torn down the pro-Sadr banners at Mustansiriya University, and teachers there say they're no longer afraid to give Sadrist students bad grades when they're deserved. Even so, topics like religion and politics are still too dangerous for class, says one professor who asked to remain unnamed for his own safety: "There is an overwhelming majority of liberals now in the university, but they are silent. They are armed with ideas, but the opponents are armed with different weapons."

Iraqis are preparing—"bracing" might be a better word—for provincial elections. Although no date has been set, the voting might come before the end of the year. But the country's secular politicians remain too disunited to take advantage of the public's widespread discontent. "The pendulum is swinging away from the Islamists. The question is, what is the alternative?" says Iraqi political analyst Ghassan Atiyyah. "Unfortunately the so-called secular forces are in a mess." The Kurdish parties get little support from other Iraqis, who suspect they want to divide Iraq. The trans-sectarian party of former prime minister Ayad Allawi has foundered amid internal disputes. And while the clean-shaven Ahmed Chalabi is trying yet again to form a new coalition, his past efforts have never gained much traction. Meanwhile the religious parties are working to protect their hold on power by barring absentee ballots from Iraqis who have fled the country. But the liberals aren't giving up. Mithal Alusi, head of the Iraq Nation Party, has built a reputation as the country's fiercest secular advocate. "People buying alcohol want to be free. It's not that they want to drink," he says. In fact, it's surely a little of both. Just ask Elias Khalaf.

With Jessica Ramirez in Washington and Hussam Ali, Salih Mehdi and Yassar Ghani in Baghdad

© 2008