What is Wrong with Halal?
Banned: The Big Daddy has been banned
at 100 KFC restaurants in the UK
Photo Credit: Daily Mail UK
First let me get a few things out of the way: businesses should be able to offer their products to ethnic markets if they wish without someone calling for a boycott simply because the targeted audience is Spanish or Jewish or even Muslim. There is a "however."
However, the company should not market products if doing so:
- Supports terror. For example, there is nothing wrong with a private manufacturer bottling an Olive Oil & Vinegar Salad Dressing under the label of Newman's Own [Wikipedia] where the profits go to legitimate charities. But it would be wrong for a manufacturer to come out with a line of Hugo Chavez cooking oil where the profits go to supporting Communist insurgencies in South America.
Of course, it is unlikely that infidel corporations will purposely support terror, but whenever they deal with Muslims they need to take extra precautions because many Muslim organizations are actually front groups for terror. Take the case of Campbell Soups:
Israel National News,
Popular Soup Boycotted Due to Halal Line of Productsnternet blogs have been calling for a boycott of Campbell Soup products after its Canadian subsidiary introduced a line of soups certified as halal, meaning they're prepared according to Islamic dietary laws.
The halal soups were introduced by Campbell Co. of Canada in a few Canadian markets in January. They are designated with a special label, are available only in Canada, and the company has no plans to offer a similar line in the United States, according to company spokesman John Faulkner.
Earlier this month, blogger Pamela Geller, who runs the popular Atlas Shrugs blog, began calling for a boycott after getting wind of the halal soups. She was soon joined by other bloggers calling for a boycott of one of the most famous canned soups in America.
Speaking to the Washington Post, Geller explained that she has no objection to the halal certification, but rather objects Campbell's decision to have its Canadian products certified by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an organization which has been accused in 2007 and 2008 of being linked with the Hamas terrorist organization. Prosecutors wrote that ISNA possessed “a wide array of testimonial and documentary evidence expressly linking” it with Hamas and other radical groups.
“No one is suggesting they not have halal food,” said Geller. “I'm not against halal food any more than I'm against kosher food. My issue is who's doing the certifying.”
- Or if it eliminates non-Halal items. For example, a KFC in Burton-on-Trent in the UK last March started selling nothing other than halal meat. I have no objection to KFC trying to accommodate their Muslim customers. However, non-Muslims can no longer buy what they have been buying for years:
Daily Mail UK,
KFC diner told 'you can't have bacon in your burger here - we're now halal'A diner was left fuming after a KFC restaurant took his favourite meal off the menu because it breached their new halal regulations.
Alan Phillips was told he would have to travel five miles to another branch if he wanted the Big Daddy, a chicken burger, topped with bacon, cheese and salad.
The branch, in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, is one of 86 KFC restaurants which is running trials of a scheme where they sell nothing other than halal meat.
But suppose this was about KFC or McDonald's catering to Jews and selling only kosher products, what then Bernie, would you make an exception then? I would be opposed to such a thing unless the restaurant accommodated gentiles as well. For example, there is only one kosher McDonald's outside of Israel in the world, in Buenos Aires, where the hamburgers are kosher which means you have to get the Big Mac without cheese. But if you want your burger your way, there's a regular McDonald's only a minute away in the same food court.
If a restaurant chain cannot afford to accommodate both gentile and Jew, both infidel and Muslim, then it must not favor the minority. Religious accommodation should not mean the faithful of other religions, or non-religions, should suffer.
I am violently opposed to any group buying a restaurant franchise and eliminating dishes they find offensive. If you buy a McDonalds or KFC, then leave the menu alone. Otherwise one day Hindus will buy McDonald's and eliminate beef from my hamburgers. Muslims will eliminate sausage from my sausage, egg and cheese. Vegans will eliminate everything except the garden salad.
Thousands of Jews own McDonald's and Burger King and KFC franchises without changing the menu to Kosher only. Muslims and others should do as the Jews do.
There are many halal restaurants by major chains in mostly Muslim countries. This is fine since they are catering to the culture of the host country.
It should be mentioned that the KFC has 750 restaurants in the UK of which 100 are halal only. The store mentioned in the article above has reverted to a regular menu in June because of poor sales.
