Alcohol in Malaysia
Alcohol is generally prohibited for Muslim consumers in the country as Malaysia's sharia law forbids Muslim from drinking and selling alcohol to them. Alcohol is mostly banned for Muslims in the states of Kelantan and Terengganu. The legal age drinking for Malaysia is 21 years old and above, which was changed from the previous legal drinking age of 18, as of 1 December 2017. The legal limit for alcohol while driving in Malaysia is 80 milligrams per decilitre or 100 millilitres. Any vendors, restaurants and retailers need a license to serve or sell tap/draft beers, liquor and spirits in the country, but bottled and canned beers are exempted from such license requirements which is why it is common to find many vendors and coffee houses continue to serving alcohol in their premises without any license throughout the country. Malaysia also impose a nationwide regulations for vendors to place their alcoholic drinks into separate refrigerators or storage places, although this was opposed by certain vendors in the state of Penang. The high tax on alcohol has led to the increase price of alcoholic drinks in Malaysia, this has contributed to alcohol-related harm as many indigenous in the interior turn to unsafe alcohol that being smuggled from neighbouring countries.
Freedom of religion
Dhimmis were allowed to operate their own courts following their own legal systems in cases that did not involve other religious groups, or capital offences or threats to public order. Non-Muslims were allowed to engage in religious practices that were usually forbidden by Islamic law, such as the consumption of alcohol and pork, as well as religious practices which Muslims found repugnant, such as the Zoroastrian practice of incestuous "self-marriage" where a man could marry his mother, sister or daughter. According to the famous Islamic legal scholar Ibn Qayyim (1292–1350), non-Muslims had the right to engage in such religious practices even if it offended Muslims, under the conditions that such cases not be presented to Islamic Sharia courts and that these religious minorities believed that the practice in question is permissible according to their religion.