Zakaria Kioua won a bottle of Cognac in an employee raffle, but the raffle organizers decided to give him chocolates instead, so as to avoid offending his Islamic sensibilities. But he says: “As a human, I should have been asked. They know I do not have problems receiving alcohol.” And now his bosses have to pay him nearly $3,000 for the crime of trying to avoid offending him.
What’s more, “he was offered a replacement bottle of Cognac and told ‘no offence was intended,'” and that still wasn’t good enough. Kioua insists: “They don’t want that prize to be going to me and they’ve used my religion to get what they want.”
So you see how it is in shattered, staggering, dhimmi Britain now: trying to avoid “Islamophobia” is “Islamophobic.” Zakaria Kioua claimed to have been victimized for being a Muslim for being (momentarily and partially) prevented from acting in a non-Islamic manner.
The overarching lesson is this: no matter what you do, if a Muslim ends up getting offended, non-Muslim officials are going to make you pay. They have made Muslims a protected class in Britain.
“Muslim porter successfully sues five-star hotel for religious harassment after bosses gave him ‘cheap’ chocolates as raffle prize instead of Cognac because they didn’t want to offend him,” by Sabi Phagura, MailOnline, September 24, 2020 (thanks to Henry):
A Muslim porter has successfully sued a five-star country hotel for religious harassment after he won a bottle of Cognac in a raffle – but bosses gave him ‘cheap’ chocolate instead.
Managers at the 17th century hotel told Zakaria Kioua that ‘giving a Muslim alcohol was like giving nuts to a person with a nut allergy’, an employment tribunal heard.
Mr Kioua, who does not drink, replied ‘religion is not an illness’ and accused hotel staff of ‘theft’ for attempting to fob him off with ‘cheap chocolates’ rather than the French brandy.
The 37-year-old, who had originally trained as a vet in Algeria before moving to the UK, was working as a linen porter at the luxurious £400-a-night Lainston House, near Winchester, Hants.
At a staff party in January 2017 a raffle took place and although Mr Kioua was not at the event, a ticket he had purchased was drawn and he won a bottle of Cognac.
Two members of staff, who were handing out the prizes, realised Mr Kioua did not drink alcohol and ‘on the spur of the moment’ suggested he be given chocolate instead.
The housekeeping manager, Patricia Lee, accepted the swap on his behalf despite knowing that Mr Kioua had been given a bottle of Taittinger champagne as a present in the past.
Mr Kioua told the tribunal: ‘As a human, I should have been asked. They know I do not have problems receiving alcohol.’
When he challenged Ms Lee about the ‘cheap box of chocolates’ he had been given instead of the expensive liquor, she was apparently ‘dismissive’.
The employment tribunal, held in Southampton, Hants, heard Mr Kioua then accused Ms Lee of ‘theft’ for swapping the Cognac.
A grievance meeting was held and manager Gaius Wyncoll claimed the gift had been ‘tailored’ to Mr Kioua and said it was a ‘thoughtful gesture’ that had nothing to do with religion.
He added: ‘[If] someone has got a nut allergy or a nut intolerance and they were given a box of chocolates that contains nuts do you not feel it would be appropriate that we then change that prize, you know, on the night?’
Mr Kioua rejected that explanation and replied: ‘It’s different. They don’t want that prize to be going to me and they’ve used my religion to get what they want.’
He told Mr Wyncoll that ‘a religion or belief is not an illness’.
Nonetheless, his grievance was dismissed and he was told the swap had absolutely ‘no connection to religious beliefs’.
The disgruntled porter launched an appeal, which was again thrown out, although he was offered a replacement bottle of Cognac and told ‘no offence was intended’.
A short while later, Mr Kioua was forced to go home to look after his sick mother and due to other health issues, he ended up taking a significant amount of time off work.
Despite help from the hotel, which offered him substantial support, Mr Kioua resigned in April 2019.
Mr Kioua launched a number of claims against the hotel after his resignation, including victimisation, failure to make reasonable adjustments in respect of disability and constructive unfair dismissal, but all were dismissed.
However, the tribunal awarded him £2,294 in respect of injury to feelings for the Cognac incident and determined Mr Kioua’s claim of harassment related to religion or belief succeeded….
DavidR says
Muhammad’s greed reaches across centuries and unfolds with law suits instead of bloodshed. Gratitude Islamist style.
LB says
HIJACKING TOP COMMENT! OFF-TOPIC, BUT IMPORTANT!
Project Veritas has just exposed what we’ve all known for years to be true. Ilhan Omar and her muslim cronies are committing voter fraud to get her into office! Except this time, we have proof on video tape! Surprisingly, the whistle-blower came from her own Somali community in Minnesota. Will she finally be locked up and deported for her crimes?
Watch it on Project Veritas’ YouTube channel before it gets taken down! There are two parts, this is the first:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWK56l2VaLY
gravenimage says
This issue is being covered here:
“Minneapolis police ‘looking into the validity’ of allegations that Ilhan Omar’s team engaged in ballot harvesting”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/09/minneapolis-police-looking-into-the-validity-of-allegations-that-ilhan-omars-team-engaged-in-ballot-harvesting
mortimer says
They cannot be pleased. They will find a way to complain whether or not we tiptoe around them.
DIRTY KAFIRS MUST BE PUNISHED … merely because they exist.
Arnold Jackson says
Next time just give away a ham. Let him prove his hypocrisy.
CogitoErgoSum says
They shouldn’t even have sold him a raffle ticket because Islam forbids gambling. Should have just given it to him for free – and made sure it was the winning number. Then, yeah, with a prize of cognac (and a ham) he could really have a great time complaining about how evil his managers are. Oh wait, I think I see the problem. They are not even supposed to be his managers if they are not Muslims. Having Infidels as his bosses is the biggest insult to him of all. Man, they really messed up all the way around.
Eva says
I think he’s already managed that perfectly, all on his own.
And when, or if, this comes out, and nobody wants to employ him because of it, he’ll sue every company that turned him down ‘because they didn’t want that job going to me and they’ve used my religion to get what they want’ and the worst of it is, he’ll win every damn time because that’s what this sick joke of a country has become.
They have no place here and should never have been allowed here.
Check Burry says
100% Eva, spot on.
Eva says
Thankyou.
This is just the way I see it playing out.
Having read another article about it, it turns out that this creature had a laundry list of ‘grievances’, all of which he threw at this company, which had actually done all it could to support him.
This was the only one that stuck, but given the nature of his lies and complaints, it never should have.
Michael Copeland says
This is the same substance, alcoholic beverage, that US carriers have refused to handle, even in boxes, because it is contrary to their religion.
The protected class can have it both ways.
owensgate says
No sensible response to this is possible. No kuffar can do anything righteous to/for a musulman that “taquia” can’t twist into islamophobia, and no musulman can do anything righteous to/for a non-musulman that can’t be forbidden by sharia.
Keith Oades says
The hotel got off light. Can you imagine the shit storm if they had actually given him the Cognac instead of the chocolate. The levels of squealing like a stuck pig because he was “offended”!
Mudslime mentality, “The wind blew the wrong way, I’m offended, who can I sue?”
mortimer says
The human resources department should have spoken to the Muslim employee to determine his preference. It would have saved a lot of money. This lawsuit was frivolous and predatory. All over a gift worth under $50.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
Here is a photo of Mr. Kioua, who says, “I do not have problems receiving firewater.”
http://teachvaluesnow.org/ebay/8×10%20Gonkon-Kiowa-Apache-1894.jpg
somehistory says
If he had been given the brady, he would have sued for the same “reason,””…beause that’s what moslims do. The find a way to make as much money as possible, keep their jobs and then prey while supposedly ‘working.’
And the fact that the bosses used a poor analogy…not so poor if one is not a moslim tarained to take offense when none is meant…it is used against them in order to win the suit.
Where there are civil rights laws, one must hire people one might wish not to employ. Once employed, moslims will take and make every advantage to gain the upper hand, even if it bankrupts their employer.
He “trained as a vet,” but what if a client brought in a dog? Or a pig? Would he poison the animal or sue the client foe “religious harassment”?
moslims wear long and wide sleeves in order to keep plenty of tricks handy…and often, knives.
Phil Copson says
” They find a way to make as much money as possible, keep their jobs and then prey while supposedly ‘working.’ ”
—————————————————————————————————————-
I expect that’s a typo for “pray” – but in this instance, “preying while working” neatly sums-up this predatory chancer.
somehistory says
To the idiots who awarded him….an allergy isn’t a disease, either.
And next time a moslim blows something up in a mass murder attack or plows into a crowd of shoppers…Christmas is coming soon…will you allow them to claim “mental illness?”
Yes, of course, you will allow anything that permits moslums to get the upper hand and escape any just desserts.
Garry Nosworthy says
The moral of the story, don’t admit them to your country, don’t shelter them, don’t feed them, don’t employ them, don’t educate them.
bitcounter says
or become muslim yourselfs and keep the upperhand
gravenimage says
Why would civilized people want to convert to this foul creed? *No thanks*.
James Lincoln says
I wonder why this crap is not happening in countries like Poland or Hungary.?
Anybody have any clue at all?
Check Burry says
The weather?
Rarely says
Pretty touchy fellow (Hyper-sensitive in fact). Most people would appreciate the consideration. Nevertheless he has a point since he bought a raffle ticket knowing full well that cognac was one of the prizes and it should have been given to him — (perhaps he intended to gift it to a Jewish friend — NOT). It is not beyond imagination that the organizer switched prizes because he (she) had an eye on the cognac and used his religion as an excuse to deny it him. In any event the organizer was pretty stupid.
Phil Copson says
Exactly – it would be a common courtesy to have asked the winner – whoever they were – if they wanted the cognac or to receive a non-alcoholic alternative. Plenty of people don’t drink, and plenty – me included – enjoy a few pints on a night out, but rarely touch spirits or drink at home.
Deciding on someone else’s behalf that they aren’t to receive their prize may not be “discrimination” but it’s certainly a bl**dy cheek.
gravenimage says
They were trying not to offend the Muslim, though–not that it worked…
David Darman says
Ditto, exactly. What was the cost/value of the cognac vs a box of chocolates? If the substitute prize was of significantly less value, the winner had a valid gripe…perhaps until such time as he was offered the booze. Even so, if the candy was of much lesser value (and one can assume it was), the hotel acted poorly and deserved a penalty.
Not every incident involving a muslim can or should be politicized. Otherwise, one loses credibility.
Seth says
Many people are allergic to nuts. Especially of the Islamic variety.
Peter Dale says
The moral of this story is that no good deed goes unpunished.
gravenimage says
UK: Muslim migrant awarded $2,900 after bosses decide not to give him Cognac to avoid offending him
……………
How much would he have been awarded if they *had* given him the Cognac and he decided to be offended after all? How much if they had asked him, and the mere fact that Cognac was a prize offended him?
What insanity. I never made a big issue out of it, but it was known at most of the places I worked that I was not much of a drinker. If I had been offered chocolates instead I would have been fine with that, and if offered the Cognac would have been gracious about that, as well–but then, I am not looking to wage lawfare.
jimmy says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=MV7oDl8yDZk&feature=emb_logo
James Lincoln says
gravenimage says,
“If I had been offered chocolates instead I would have been fine with that, and if offered the Cognac would have been gracious about that”
Yes, that is an example of how normal, polite, well-adjusted people would behave in that circumstance…
gravenimage says
Yes.
Jayell says
Kioua (and his lefty union lawyers?) were obviously just on an extended fishing expedition, trying everything on to see how much he could get after he was sacked. It’s so blatantly obvious! So it looks like the hotel paid him £2,294 just to shut him up and get shot of him. All this business about ‘religious discrimination’ just because he got a box of chocolates is just pure Monty Python garbage. People like Kioua & friends don’t seem to be bothered that they are building up an increasing backlog of dislike and resentment in the UK (on top of the appalling publicity from the terrorism and grooming scandals) that’s already rebounding on them i9n the jobs market as well as socially. No doubt that would be a cue for yet more whingeing and legalised money-grubbing, and so it will snowball until they’re finally told to take a running jump.
Ade Fegan says
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
balafama says
i don’t feel sorry for the hotel management ,it’s the same type of idiotic thinking in schools or local govt that leads to cancelling christmas events, halloween, banning dogs ,porks etc even in cases where muslims have not made any demand , just endless pandering.
gravenimage says
You can’t assume that this litigious Mohammedan sued because he doesn’t like “political correctness”.
John Allan says
An overly expensive cognac; an overly sensitive – though evidently not overly ignorant of the law being ‘a ass’ – Mussie … and an overly ludicrous court proceedings!
GOLDMANN says
Muslim heretics are not allowed to gamble anyway ! ?
gravenimage says
Also true–can you imagine if the hotel had mentioned that, though!
FYI says
Gambling is haram in islam…any kind of gambling.
If muslims win money it is not considered halal.They are not supposed to be gambling anyway.
A muslim would be expected to know that.
If he put his own name in the raffle ,then what was he doing if he knew gambling is haram in islam?
If somebody put his name in the raffle when he didn’t ask to be in the raffle,that would be different.
‘Giving alcohol to a muslim was like giving nuts to someone with a nut allergy’
And trying to reason with a muslim is like having a conservation with a nutjob.
nuts and muslims go together like two peas in a pod.His ‘religion’ is certainly an illness.
Note the virtue-signalling islamic tantrum and ‘victim’ codology and the stupidity of pandering to it.
muslims are laughing all the way to the bank,especially with this contrived ‘islamophobia’ money racket.
John Henry Harvey says
To make Robert’s point even more explicit: The hilarious thing here is that if an organization HAD given alcohol to a Muslim, THAT would have been deemed offensive.
mortimer says
The lesson employers will take from this is not to hire Muslims, since they may behave like Kioua!
Rob R (Brit stuck in Britainistan) says
Okay then…..
James Lincoln says
According to the feature article:
“the tribunal awarded him £2,294 in respect of injury to feelings for the Cognac incident…”
Disgusting, £2,294 for “hurt feelings”…
Peter35 says
Oh for god’s sake give him the cognac and chocolates—-and a knighthood! Anything, for the new, imported ‘master-race’.
I admit to being completely mystified with what the brits (the don’t deserve a capital any more) find as admirable in any moslem.
They are useless trash, and playing the west like a violin.
Rob R (Brit stuck in Britainistan) says
They could just as easily have been either jailed, or sued, for doing the opposite, and handing the Cognac to him no questions asked.
Because as we know most European governments, especially the British, are utterly insane. Mad. And the times we live in are utterly insane.
Florinda Kay Garrett says
The hotel is not aware of rape culture of Muslim-dominated areas of the world, especially if the woman is non-Muslim? The hotel does not seem to be concerned for the female guests. Just a matter of time before he decides to take advantage of his protected status, knowing that he can never be prosecuted in the biased blind courts. As a female, I never want to stay in any hotel that has Muslim employees, but how would you know? Perhaps if establishments that hire Muslims LOSE business because sensible people do not want to be around them, that could send a message?
sidney penny says
“Mr Kioua told the tribunal: ‘As a human, I should have been asked. They know I do not have problems receiving alcohol.’”
Kinda odd don’t you think?
What about the Muslim taxi drivers at the airport who did not want to carry you if they knew you had duty free alcohol with you.
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2007/04/taxi-drivers-cant-refuse-riders-mac-rules
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2008/09/minnesota-muslim-cabbies-lose-in-bid-to-impose-sharia-rules-on-the-rest-of-us.html
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/04/uk-muslim-cabbie-kicks-out-family-for-carrying-wine