Imams fumed and believers rallied this week in Kazakhstan, where a brand of vodka praising the might of Allah went on sale in the country’s east, local media reported on Thursday.
The plastic wrapping on the neck of the Baiterek vodka contained the phrase roughly translated as “the might of Allah suffices for everyone” in Arabic script amid flowery ornaments, KTK television said.
The vodka, priced at 650 tenge ($4.3) per bottle, appeared in the city of Semey, some 600 kilometers east from the capital Almaty, Tengrinews.kz said.
Several dozen devout Muslims staged a protest rally in the city of Aktobe, while the country’s Islamic clergy lambasted the unholy produce in an online appeal, which pointed out that Allah banned believers from consumption of alcohol.
The manufacturer, Geom, blamed its Russian partners, saying the wrapping was designed by an unspecified Russian firm, KTK said. The firm mistook the Arabic script for an ethnic Kazakh design, Geom’s director said, Tengrinews.kz reported.
The company issued an official apology and pulled the blasphemous beverage off the shelves, the report said.
Islam is the dominant religion in Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation of 16 millions, but the country adopted a relaxed stance on religion after decades under Soviet rule. However, it experienced the first violent attacks by Islamic radicals in its history last fall, indicating a rise in religious sentiment.
