Norway: Temperance movements should work with Muslims

Norway: Temperance movements should work with Muslims


The temperance movement was founded in Norway 150 years ago. Next week the temperance organizations IOGT (International Organisation of Good Templars) and DNT (Norwegian Society for Total Temperance) will convene at a convention in Stavanger and Sandnes. The organizations are working together on an introductory seminar titled "what is the point of not drinking?"

Liberal Party politicians, abstainer and former lawyer Abid Q. Raja will talk about the relationship of the immigrant communities to the temperance movements.

"We are not strong enough to focus on the immigrants' substance abuse. People think that Muslims are abstainers. But there are more and more alcoholics and drug-users in this group. It's extra taboo when the culture and religion forbid substance use. They drink in hiding and it's difficult to seek help," says Raja to Stavanger Aftenblad.

Therefore he calls on the temperance organizations to think anew. To consider how the new citizens in the country think. To find ways to work in a community where nobody would admit to drinking.

Raja thinks the temperance movement is needed in Norway. He says they contribute to bringing up the topic. "There's an over-use of alcohol in our country. Children suffer from adults' substance-abuse. Crime, violence and vice can be linked to a high degree to intoxication. This a continuously present social problem."

But it's high time for the temperance movement to modernize and speak in modern language, thinks Raja.

"I don't drink, but don't think that others should do the same as me. I believe complete rejection of alcohol can work too bombastically."

The DNT is aware that a multicultural society gives the temperance organizations a new challenge.

"Large parts of the Norwegian temperance folk are today Muslims. For several years we've had the project 'bridge-building' whose goal is that ethnic Norwegians and the immigrant communities will learn from each other," says the organization's consultant Mari-Marthe Apenæs.

DNT General Secretary Harald Dyrkorn says that the Norwegian alcohol culture can be excluding for immigrant groups, and therefore prevent integration.

Frode Sagland, secretary of IOGT Sør-Rogaland, answers that the organization would like to be more active in working with refugees, for example.

Source: Aftenbladet (Norwegian)