kazakhstani officials have busted a plot to bomb the factory that used to produce "allah vodka". the vodka created a stir last year, prompting "geom", the company that produced it, to withdraw the product and issue an apology (link in russian. google translate version)
it's really too bad that i wasn't able to see these bottles while i was in kaz. weird brands of alcohol was one of my beats when i was blogging from there.
actually, the vodka wasn't called "allah." it was a baiterek-brand vodka with an arabic inscription on the foil by the cap. (i do remember baiterek vodka. they had an expensive novelty version of that brand with a bottle shaped like the baiterek tower in astana)
no, i can't read the arabic in that photo. it supposedly says "allah's strength is enough for everybody", which would be something like قوة الله ما يكفي للجميع. but i can't see it at all. it looks like the alcohol tax sticker (the stickers are stuck across the cap of all alcoholic beverages sold in kazakhstan) may be partly obscuring the phrase.
UPDATE (2/22/2013): gw, my former arabic tutor, identified the phrase as لا غالب إلا الله ("no winner except allah"). and i can see it, now that i know what i'm looking for. the tax sticker covers most of the لا, so i guess it says "winner except god." shukran gw!
it's really too bad that i wasn't able to see these bottles while i was in kaz. weird brands of alcohol was one of my beats when i was blogging from there.
actually, the vodka wasn't called "allah." it was a baiterek-brand vodka with an arabic inscription on the foil by the cap. (i do remember baiterek vodka. they had an expensive novelty version of that brand with a bottle shaped like the baiterek tower in astana)
no, i can't read the arabic in that photo. it supposedly says "allah's strength is enough for everybody", which would be something like قوة الله ما يكفي للجميع. but i can't see it at all. it looks like the alcohol tax sticker (the stickers are stuck across the cap of all alcoholic beverages sold in kazakhstan) may be partly obscuring the phrase.
UPDATE (2/22/2013): gw, my former arabic tutor, identified the phrase as لا غالب إلا الله ("no winner except allah"). and i can see it, now that i know what i'm looking for. the tax sticker covers most of the لا, so i guess it says "winner except god." shukran gw!
