Halal Burger 'Discrimination' Stirs Debate in France

[citizen k]

Halal Burger 'Discrimination' Stirs Debate in France

By BRUCE CRUMLEY  Wed Feb 24, 5:10 pm ET

Perhaps it's time for France to take a deep breath.

First the country went through histrionics as parliamentarians bustled to ban the niqab - the face-covering garment that only a few hundred Muslim women wear in this nation of 65 million people. Then came President Nicolas Sarkozy's push for a debate on national identity, a move that critics claimed stigmatized immigrants and Muslims. Now France is demonstrating what looks like a neurotic obsession with Islam - if not outright Islamophobia - as it frets over the halal hamburgers that are sold in a handful of the 362 French affiliates of Franco-Belgian fast-food chain Quick.

The latest brouhaha was sparked by René Vandierendonck, the socialist mayor of the northern city of Roubaix, who this month railed against his local Quick outlet over its Nov. 30 decision to remove bacon burgers from its menu and replace them with a version using halal beef and a slice of smoked turkey. "It's discrimination" against non-Muslim customers, Vandierendonck said. The mayor has filed charges with justice authorities against Quick for what he says is prejudicial religious catering. He has also lodged a complaint with France's main antidiscrimination authority on the matter. "Yes to diversity, no to exclusion," Vandierendonck told Le Monde's website last week. "I congratulate Quick for adapting its offer to consumers by providing halal, but it goes too far when they propose only that."

Unsurprisingly, Marine Le Pen, vice president of France's far-right National Front Party, whose power base lies near Roubaix, has been quick to jump on the issue. France, she says, needs to be defended from Islam's growing influence. Quick's halal option is "an Islamic tax" on diners. Not to be outdone, members of the ruling conservative Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) have also fretted over Quick's menu change. UMP secretary general Xavier Bertrand says it is undermining France's secular, integrationist social model, while UMP parliamentarian Richard MalliÉ salutes Vandierendonck's "republican combat."

Critics of Vandierendonck point out that Roubaix's Quick outlet is one of just eight in France to adapt its menu to its predominantly Muslim customers and claim that the controversy, coming after those about Muslim dress and religious symbols, is evidence of a deep prejudice against Islam. "Would there have been all these resounding denunciations had Quick decided to position itself in, say, the biological food niche rather than halal?" asks Muslim consumer blog Al Kanz. "Would thematic Quick menus offering only Mexican or Chinese food make such noise in the media? No, assuredly not." (See an article on halal food advertising.)

Mayors in cities where other Quick restaurants have gone halal say the move provoked no problem or debate. Socialist politicians say Vandierendonck's theatrics are of a type with the divisive grandstanding they accused conservatives of using in the recent identity debate. Many French commentators note that fast-food diners can't tell whether the meat they're eating is halal, kosher or blessed by voodoo priests unless they're specifically told - making the beef over halal burgers seem a tad overdone. French KFC affiliates mostly buy halal-slaughtered birds, but there has been no controversy about that. And if people are really annoyed about bacon being dropped from a menu, they can always take their business to one of France's many other fast-food outlets.

[Martinus]

I agree with the overall sentiment - it's one thing to offer 'special' food (whether halal, kosher, vegetarian or whatever craziness one believes in) as an alternative, it's quite another to axe the normal food and replace it with a hocus pocus version exclusively. France needs another anti-religious revolution.

[Zanza]

The management of Quick and not the mayor of Roubaix should determine what is sold there.

[Duque de Bragança]

The management of Quick and not the mayor of Roubaix should determine what is sold there.

I agree with that but there is a thing the article fails to mention that Quick is owned by the French investment firm CDC Capital Investissement, a 100 % subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts, a French financial organization, owned by the French secular state which would be then paying some kind of hallal tax...
Not exactly a strategic sector warranting some kind of state control.

Quick was Belgian before that. There is another controvery surrounding the takeover by CDC in Belgium but I'll let the Belgians give the details

Selling only hallal stuff is dumb if you ask me, even in Roubaix (near Lille/Rijsel lots of muslims there) or Marseille (ditto).

[Warspite]

I agree with the overall sentiment - it's one thing to offer 'special' food (whether halal, kosher, vegetarian or whatever craziness one believes in) as an alternative, it's quite another to axe the normal food and replace it with a hocus pocus version exclusively. France needs another anti-religious revolution.

Firms can sell whatever the hell they want. Your faux-liberal veneer rubs off more every day.

[Sahib]

I agree with the overall sentiment - it's one thing to offer 'special' food (whether halal, kosher, vegetarian or whatever craziness one believes in) as an alternative, it's quite another to axe the normal food and replace it with a hocus pocus version exclusively. France needs another anti-religious revolution.

I heard there are venues that only offer vegetarian food.
When will the vegan tyranny end? 

[Martinus]

The management of Quick and not the mayor of Roubaix should determine what is sold there.

Well, the management of Quick determines what should be sold there and how it should be sold, but this is subject to regulations concerning health, safety, consumer protection, non-discrimination etc. So your lassez-faire position is quite wrong taking into account the commercial environment in Europe (not to mention Germany, where the management of Aldi can't, for example, sell stuff on Sunday, so it's not the management of the chain, but politicians who decided he can't do this). 

[Martinus]

I agree with the overall sentiment - it's one thing to offer 'special' food (whether halal, kosher, vegetarian or whatever craziness one believes in) as an alternative, it's quite another to axe the normal food and replace it with a hocus pocus version exclusively. France needs another anti-religious revolution.

Firms can sell whatever the hell they want. Your faux-liberal veneer rubs off more every day.

This is an illusion in a highly-regulated European market. Firms can't sell whatever they want, they can't fire whoever they want, they can't refuse service to whoever they want, they can't even charge whatever they want.

The only question here is whether on its merits this warrants a state intervention or not, not whether by doing so we would lose some laissez-faire purity, because we lost it decades ago.

[Josquius]

I don't see how its discrimination. The buisness clearly doesn't get many non-muslim customers so they're just tailoring what they sell to their market.

[Martinus]

I don't think this fits the definition of discrimination, no. However, this is causing outrage, because it is perceived as a "concession" to islam, and thus a symptom of the creeping islamization (like the removal of piggy banks from some UK banks some time ago).

[Grey Fox]

Why do non-muslim care if food is Halal or not? It's actually one more link in the chain of food salubrity.

But I support emasculation of Islam at every corner.

[Martinus]

Why do non-muslim care if food is Halal or not? It's actually one more link in the chain of food salubrity.

But I support emasculation of Islam at every corner.

Err, have you read the article? It's not just about some method of preparation (like kosher vodka for example), but this means removal of bacon and other pork meat from the menu. Why would one not care about it?

[Scipio]

I don't think this fits the definition of discrimination, no. However, this is causing outrage, because it is perceived as a "concession" to islam, and thus a symptom of the creeping islamization (like the removal of piggy banks from some UK banks some time ago).

Ah.  Gay panic.

[Grey Fox]

Why do non-muslim care if food is Halal or not? It's actually one more link in the chain of food salubrity.

But I support emasculation of Islam at every corner.

Err, have you read the article? It's not just about some method of preparation (like kosher vodka for example), but this means removal of bacon and other pork meat from the menu. Why would one not care about it?

Nope.

Less Bacon is good for our hearts, tho I understand the outrage.

[DisturbedPervert]

Why do non-muslim care if food is Halal or not?

I don't want to eat halal meat