Abstract

This paper explores how people deal with, adapt, and negotiate with drinking issues and haram (religious taboo) in Malaysia, a Muslim multicultural country. Alcohol consumption is highly regulated in Malaysia, shaped by the intersection of national laws, local policies, religious doctrines, and cultural practices. Malaysia operates under a dual legal system, with civil law and Islamic law (sharia), and the boundary is blurred between the public and private spheres. This article focuses on the tension between Malaysia’s prohibition norms and actual drinking practices, aiming to show how alcohol consumption has evolved into a complex, plural, exclusive or inclusive social process. To grasp the social meanings of Muslim drinking in Malaysia, we must ask: Why do people drink? How do they drink? What effects and consequences does drinking have for the drinkers? How does drinking relate to identity construction and ethnic politics? This paper centers on urban middle-class Muslims in Kuala Lumpur. Major ethnographic fieldwork was conducted between 2022 and 2024, combining participant observations with in-depth interviews, media reports, and official documents to reveal how the regulations and tensions regarding drinking in Malaysia have been addressed. Using the case of “alcohol negotiation,” this article argues that the study of Muslim ethical life must be grounded in everyday practices, to capture how believers flexibly navigate religious restrictions and secular strategies within an institutional context which has gaps. Only by doing so can we avoid reducing Islamic injunctions to rigid legal rules and instead recognize their flexibility and creativity as a form of “living ethical practice.”

Keywords: drinking, religious taboo, middle-class, Muslims, Malaysia