When I was in Dubai for work it was explained to me that while it is prohibited to drink alcohol for Muslims under normal situations, they are allowed to have alcohol as part of business meetings/dinners since they court an international audience for various business prospects which is crucial for their economic future as a county.

Supposedly, that's why everyone has a "business", and you always see 2 bros in white robes chillin at a restaurant having drinks for a "meeting".

I guess every religion old enough has such kind of loopholes. I know from Roman Catholic that there can be made up so many exceptions that the 40 days of lent before Easter books down to a few days of actually fasting. No lent if you're travelling (commute to work counts), no lent if you have guests, and of course no lent if you are a guest somewhere else. And Sunday is exempt from lent anyways.

LOL, that's funny. They're definitely making an excuse to eat pork.

The Muslims I know are pretty strict about following the commandments. Of course nobody's perfect, but they pray 5 times per day, take their prayer rug to work, and follow their dietary restrictions. Of course I'm not around them all the time though, that's just what I've seen.

The person who is the most serious about it that I know isn't Arabic or Persian. He's an African American living in the American South, and he's very serious about his religion. The Muslims I know that seem the most relaxed about it are immigrants from Iran. Several of their first generation American kids are atheists.