An Islamic organisation that has argued sobriety is an “obligation on Muslims” and a “revolutionary duty” has invested in a bar chain offering £1 “shooters’” and £3 cocktails.
Accounts filed by the Islamic Human Rights Commission’s charitable trust in 2009 listed an investment in the Baa Bar Group, a Liverpool-based company with eight locations across the North of England, worth £38,250. Accounts for the year ending 30 June 2012 showed continued investment in the chain, which on its website encourages customers to “follow their own deepest of animal instincts”.
The message couldn’t be more different from the IHRC’s own publications. Among these is Quest For Unity by Imam Achmad Cassiem. The report says: “The greatest underminer and saboteur of discipline and confidence is alcohol and so-called social drinking.” It goes on to claim that the “oppressor” is “making enormous profits from liquor” and urges Muslims to refrain from producing, distributing and consuming alcohol.
Baa Bar’s website, in contrast, urges potential visitors to “unleash your inner animal” and boasts that its inexpensive shooter drinks contain “e numbers, additives and plenty of alcohol”.
Jacob Campbell, research director for Stand for Peace, an interfaith organisation that campaigns against extremism, said: “Although bizarre on the face of it, it actually isn’t all that surprising. Islamist groups tend to take the view that the ends invariably justify the means... Better by far to become morally bankrupt than financially so.”
The IHRC did not respond to repeated invitations for a response. The Baa Bar Group declined to comment, but its financial statements to April 2012 said it shares the Government’s commitment to tackling irresponsible drinking. Its accounts show a profit of £1.5m on a turnover of £10.3m.