After seeing a couple of Saudis put away more beer at an airport lounge in Bahrain than gets consumed at an average redneck wedding, I've got to wonder how much alcohol is consumed in the officially 100% Islamic country. And I'm not talking about the ex-pat community alone.
Lots. I used to work with a woman (an ethnic Armenian) who grew up in Iran until her teen years. She said there was plenty of drinking and alcohol wasn't hard to get at all.
Similarly, I was once talking to a guy who ran one of those swanky Malibu detox places, and he said that, besides the children of celebrities, their most frequent customers were wealthy middle-easterners. He said that liquor is easy to get over there--especially if you have money--but that there are no treatment options.
Well, I’ll put it this way. In small grocery store in my town, one side of an aisle was dedicated to fruit juice, and most of it was filled with unfermented grape juice. Just opposite were baking goods that included the yeast required for fermentation and sugar for fortification. However, I only discussed the arts of brewing and vinting with other expats.