I have no idea whether or not the Beasleys’s claim is true that Arcapita allowed white-owned Church’s Chicken franchises to continue serving pork, but didn’t allow them to. What concerns me about this story is the Stealth Jihad aspect of it: the introduction of Sharia norms into American businesses.
David J. Rusin explains some of what’s wrong with this at Islamist Watch:
A privately owned business may choose to sell or not sell whatever it wishes, as long as it does not violate the law or infringe upon the rights of others in the process. Customers have no inherent right to purchase pork at Church’s Chicken franchises, and the company is under no obligation to offer it “” regardless of the underlying motivation.
The free market, however, cuts both ways. Hungry Americans are not required to patronize any given restaurant. In the case of Church’s Chicken, the absence of pork on the menu is just one excuse to eat elsewhere. Diners may also be concerned about what their money will fund at the Shari’a-compliant First Islamic Investment Bank in Bahrain.
To that I would add that the Beasleys being compelled to stop serving pork is yet another example of the Sharia accommodation that is increasingly being forced upon Americans, and that will only continue until someone has the temerity to resist it.
Stealth Jihad Update: “Bank for Racial Discrimination,” by Brendan Kearney for The Daily Record (Baltimore) via BlackEnterprise (thanks to Pamela):
A Baltimore couple has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Islamic investment bank that owns the Church’s Chicken fast-food chain, alleging their franchise failed because the bank’s strict adherence to the religious code of Shari’ah prohibited the couple from selling pork.
Marcus and Denise Beasley, who are black, claimed they were treated differently by the bank, now known as Atlanta-based Arcapita Inc., than non-black franchisees who were allowed to continue serving breakfast dishes containing pork after the chain was acquired by the bank in December 2004.
The couple did not benefit from the grandfather policy allowing the sale of pork even though their contract with the chain’s former owners, AFC Enterprises Inc., to open a location in Baltimore/ Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport’s new terminal predated the takeover and policy change, according to the suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.