Whoever thought in a Western country such as France, a woman could be assaulted for serving alcohol?

Whoever thought in a Western country such as France, a woman could be assaulted for serving alcohol?

This is the sentiment of one Muslim woman who faced this very situation. A woman in her 30s was waitressing at a bar in Nice, France when two men burst in and started insulting her for serving alcohol during the Islamic month of Ramadan. The lady retells the incident saying, “They pointed to the bottles of alcohol behind the counter, and then one of them said in Arabic. ‘You shame on serving alcohol during Ramadan. If I were God, I would have you hanged’.” The woman responded, “You are not God to judge me,” then the men cruelly retorted by telling her she was a “prostitute” and a “b[#]tch.” The men left the place, and soon after one of the men came back and struck the woman, making her hit the floor. The woman was shocked this type of situation could happen in France, saying she never experienced any trouble while having the same occupation in Tunisia.

So, what’s the issue with alcohol for Muslims? For a lot of Muslims, alcohol is forbidden (haram), which can be deduced from the following Qur’anic passages:

They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, “In them is great sin and [yet, some] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.” And they ask you what they should spend. Say, “The excess [beyond needs].” Thus Allah makes clear to you the verses [of revelation] that you might give thought. –Quran 2:219 O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful. –Quran 5:90

Some real-life examples of Islamic penalties for not just consuming but also selling and producing alcohol include: in 2012, two Iranians were sentenced to be executed for consumption of alcohol in Iran (3rd offense, received 160 lashes prior); in April of 2016, a 60-year-old Christian woman was caned 30 times in front of hundreds of spectators for selling alcohol in Indonesia; in 2015, a British man doing prison time in Saudi Arabia for making homemade wine was also sentenced to a public flogging involving 350 lashes.

This culture of Sharia compliance is reaching into the depths of Western life as the recent example in Nice illustrates. France and other countries need to send a clear message to Muslims who want to enforce Sharia, that either they respect the law of the land or they will be appropriately punished. Sharia law is not compatible with Western values.