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Several Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets — not in Iraq, or Turkey, or Iran, but in Australia — have taken pork off the menu to avoid offending Muslims. From the Herald Sun, with thanks to LGF:
FOUR KFC restaurants have taken bacon off the menu in favour of Muslim-friendly products.The Endeavour Hills, Fawkner, Keilor Downs and Flemington KFC outlets have all dumped bacon from fillet burgers.
At Endeavour Hills, "sold-out" stickers have been placed over bacon products on its drive-through menu.
Customers are offered alternatives such as cheese or pineapple.
Angry Christians claim religious discrimination.
Last year the Hume City Council tried to ban ham and pork at its functions as a sign of respect to Muslims.
Endeavour Hills Christian Joan Hansen has vowed to boycott all KFC restaurants until bacon returns to the menu.
"I like bacon and I think it's a bit rude that they're kowtowing to a minority," she said.
Mrs Hansen said she felt sick when she first heard the news. "I'm just scared of where it's heading," she said.
Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan said the restaurants should cater for all religions.
Halal preparation of food means Muslims can avoid eating pork products or from eating at places where pork products are prepared.
Antiochian Orthodox priest Reverend Geoff Harvey said the situation was ridiculous. "It's offensive to Christians that they can't get a bacon burger when they go into KFC, so who do you offend most?" he said.
KFC corporate affairs manager Angus Armstrong said the bacon-free menu would be tested at the four restaurants over three months.
"We're testing to see if it makes a difference and if it's appreciated by customers," he said.
Mr Armstrong said bacon would return if the trial was unsuccessful.
He said there were no plans to expand the trial beyond the four stores.
However, Muslims were offended anyway:
But the human rights co-ordinator for the Islamic Council of Victoria, Bilal Cleland, warned KFC's menu may not in fact be halal."We hope that people are not taken in by this scheme. Just because you take the bacon out of the burgers doesn't make the food halal," he said.
"There has to be authentic certification that the food is halal and I haven't seen any evidence of that."
He said that all the meat, including chicken, must be certified as halal before it was acceptable to Muslims.
Posted by Robert at March 2, 2004 2:01 PM
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Pineapple instead of bacon? NEVER! The very thought turns my stomach.
Posted by: Robert at March 2, 2004 3:06 PMHey, Robert,
There are things that pineapple is really good with - like ham.
jay
Posted by: Jay Stevens at March 2, 2004 3:14 PMI frequent Crown Valley Market (Mission Viejo, CA), a Persian market and they sell ham & a other pork products. There is a halal section of the butcher's case, yet tasty ham is proudly displayed, seperated by a thin pane of glass. They also sell wine, beer, and Israeli products. I've seen cookies decorated with blue star of David's there, and for Christmas the put up a 12 ft. tree with all the trimmings right in front of the store. There's a "God bless our troops" poster over the Bakery section. The staff is friendly and I've never seen a hajib there.
I wish all Moslems were like them.
Posted by: Robert at March 2, 2004 3:15 PMOh, I almost forgot. Some of my Saudi coworkers believe that we really don't eat pork because it's poisonous and we'd get sick and maybe die.
jay
Posted by: Jay Stevens at March 2, 2004 3:17 PMNope, I can't handle mixing fruit & meat. Right now I'm drying a batch of beef jerky- meat from the above market.
Posted by: Robert at March 2, 2004 3:18 PMAnimals must be slaughtered in a particular and unnecessarily cruel way in order to be labeled "halal." From a friend in Australia, I know that even their Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals dares not raise a voice to protest the ever-expanding business of halal slaughter. Even for an organization dedicated to the welfare of animals, Muslim feelings must come first.
Posted by: Mary Elizabeth Hansen at March 2, 2004 4:03 PMLet them open their own stores KFCs if they want halal. Enough of this damn nonsense. Assimilate or move on!
Posted by: helen at March 2, 2004 7:49 PMIf you go to the KFC site you can contact the corporation directly, although it remains to be seen how much sway the corporate office has over the franchises. But as with most things, the almighty buck tends to carry some weight. I didn't have the heart to tell KFC--whilst expressing my outrage and pledging to boycott ALL KFcs--that I already cannot eat there, simply because the chicken has all the consistency of a deep-fried kitchen sponge.
Posted by: Doug at March 2, 2004 10:12 PM
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