No compromise. No mutual respect. No mutual understanding. No generous response to a generous overture. Just, as always, demands for unilateral and unreciprocated accommodation. “Paris mosque slams burger chain’s Muslim outreach,” from The Associated Press, September 2 (thanks to Block Ness):
Note to big companies hoping to tap into France’s lucrative but long-neglected Muslim consumer market: Pitfalls may await, and not only in the form of complaints from the far-right.
As of this week, 22 outlets of popular French fast food chain Quick are serving burgers it says respect Islamic dietary law. And while many Muslims are delighted, the powerful main Paris Mosque complained Thursday that Quick’s criteria aren’t all-encompassing enough, and that the operation is meaningless.
Quick’s meat is certified as halal, but Cheikh Al Sid Cheikh, assistant to the rector of the Paris Mosque, said the burger chain should have had the other ingredients checked as well, from its mustard to buns to fries.
“The rest must be validated too, or else there’s no point,” he told The Associated Press. Quick responded that it has no intention of making any of its restaurants halal through-and-through _ beer is still served there, for example, said spokeswoman Valerie Raynal….
Fateh Kimouche, founder of the French Muslim consumer Web site Al-Kanz, says most of the 40 to 50 outlets in France that provide halal certification aren’t rigorous enough and don’t have their own inspectors to verify that Islamic law is being respected.
He says the situation is scandalous, calling it “halal-gate.”
“Up to 90 percent of meat marked ‘halal’ isn’t really, and there are big names in French industry that are up to their necks in the problem,” he said…..
That’s a good way to get those necks struck (cf. Qur’an 47:4).