Burger King Arrives in South Africa
The above article made me spit. Increasingly halal foods are being forced upon us without our knowledge and certainly without our having requested them. By us, I mean non Muslims. I can understand that it makes sense economically for halal options to be offered to Muslim diners, but there should be a choice. Certainly many supermarkets in South Africa have kosher sections. But to ban pork products entirely from restaurants, supermarkets and even airlines, is taking things too far. Leaving aside the methods used to slaughter animals to satisfy halal standards, foisting the regime on the rest of society sends the wrong message to Muslims who will believe that they only have to complain loudly and aggressively enough and they will have their way in all things. Soon it will be Sharia Law. It really has to stop now.
I came across these sites, one .com and the other .org. I am sure there are many others that express similar views.
I fully intend to encourage people to go into Halal restaurants such as Burger King and order huge quantities of food before enquiring whether it is Halal thereafter cancelling the order. Childish perhaps, but if enough people express their opposition, the big chains might take note. The spread of halal has to stop.
The boycott halal campaign is quite strong in Sri Lanka. Good for them. I hope it spreads.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Point is they have already learned that to complain loudly enough in the West IS the way they get everything they want!
I have never understood the impotence of the Western politicians and liberals allowing them to import their ‘unpleasant’ habits along with themselves against the wishes of indigenous populations.
It always ends in tears and violence, always has, if people care to study their history! Both Spain and the Balkans come to mind.
As and when Britain finally has had enough, the politicians and the do-gooders will only have themselves to blame.
Best wishes with your anti halal!
Quite so, Sipu. Whereas I will quite happily tear the throat out of a wild,boar, goat or pretty much anything else, I do draw the line at halal (the lack of a capital ‘H’ is deliberate) killings and I will do my best to fight this muslimification of western Europe. It must never, ever become the default option here.
Why it is even done here I don’t know – we don’t condone animal cruelty. HM The Queen respects local customs when she visits Arab countries wearing long dresses and sleeves. If you want halal meat the airport (T3) is thataway.
OZ
I certainly support the right to choose, Sipu, we should know where our meat comes from and how it was slaughtered.
But, as far as I can see it has little or nothing to do with pressure from Muslims or Jews (kosher meat is slaughtered in a very similar way), but rather more to do with commercial realism from the wholesalers. New Zealand lamb for example is pretty much all halal, although the animals are stunned before ritual slaughter. It is more expensive to set up a dual system of abattoirs. It is up to the retail outlets to label it correctly and they don’t.
This, I agree is wrong.
“McDonald’s South Africa told Times LIVE that all their stores are 100% halaal and not a single store serves bacon in any of their meals.” (from your Times link)
I see that Steers have a variety of Bacon Burgers AND a separate halaal menu.
Anyhow, for the time being I’m with you on this one, I promise to boycott Burger King and not go within 500 miles of one 😉
Some five years ago, Bearsy and I went to Perth for my grandson’s 21st – hardly the Muslim centre of WA. I can’t remember quite how we got booked into the hotel we did – but they proudly proclaimed that all their meat was halal and there was no bacon for breakfast…. as far as I’m concerned the most heinous crime any hotel can commit is not to serve bacon for breakfast! We told them exactly what we thought.
QANTAS is the flag carrier of Australia. It’s name is, after all, an acronym of ‘Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services’. Ha – Australian – never!
Recently Qantas went into partnership with Emirates Airline, so now many Qantas flights use Dubai.as a stopover and those flights will no longer serve pig products or alcohol.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/pigs-cant-fly-qantas-bans-pork-on-in-flight-menu-to-respect-islam/story-e6freuy9-1226612841997
My daughter is flying to the UK next month with Qantas – she reckons she can do without her bacon or pork, But, I do wonder how she, and a lot of other Ozzies, will feel when they are told they cannot have alcohol on their long and tedious flight… 🙂 The Biggest insult here is to be called ‘Un-Australian’ – how un-Australian can it be to ban alcolhol!
I find it interesting that increasingly food manufacturers proudly label their food ‘free range eggs / chickens’, ‘Sow stall free pork’, ‘Organically grown’ – but do not tell us that their animals have been slaughtered according to some ancient ritual that is not in accordance with what most civilised countries deem to be humane. I had no idea that most New Zealand lamb was halal.
I don’t have too much of a problem with companies who do not have to change their product wanting to be ‘halal certified’ (http://www.smh.com.au/comment/halal-easter-eggs-and-cat-food-where-big-money-meets-religion-20130327-2gujc.html).
But I do object to having my choices being limited by the likes of the WA hotel and Qantas. I eat and enjoy, pork. I drink, and enjoy, alcohol. And I like my steak blue – not drained of blood!
The move to serving halal meat may simply be a commercial decision not arising from pressure from Islamic groups. It may be that companies like McDonalds think that non-Muslims don’t care whether their products are halal or not. But, it is about time that people make such companies aware that we do mind.
Hmmm,
My favourite BK is the XL Bacon Double with Cheese.
Either they have found a way to make bacon Halaal or you are talking total bollocks. Wonder which it might be.
Your comment reminded me of a very strange chap I used to work with who had a ‘favourite’ necrophilia joke. The idea of having a favourite Burger King hamburger strikes me as being equally bizarre.
Ferret, presumably Burger King in the UK and South Africa are different?
PS Don’t fancy your cholesterol level if that is on the menu too often!
Christina – Burger King outlets world-wide are mainly franchises, so there can be local variations in the ingredients, and some specialised products that don’t appear anywhere else.
Interestingly, Australia has no Burger Kings. We have Hungry Jack’s (the apostrophe is mandatory) which is run by an Australian national franchisee under different Ts & Cs from anywhere else. Over the years the BK parent company has tried all sorts of sneaky tricks to introduce the BK name and to squash HJ’s out of existence, but our High Court finally put an end to this a few years ago, and told BK (in more legalistic words) that they were a pushy load of bullying con artists, and that they should back off. Cost them a packet, too! 🙂
“AussieBurgers” (all burger outlets, not just HJ’s) are, inter alia, characterised by the inclusion of a thick slice of beetroot, which is a national passion. You don’t have to have it, but you’ll be regarded as un-Australian if you don’t!. “There’s nowt so queer as folk …” 😀
Bearsy, how interesting, thanks for the info, can’t say I had ever considered them, BKs, seriously. The beetroot is strange, pickled or just plain boiled? Can’t say that I think the flavour is particularly complimentary. (And I love beetroot, I have several rows in this year, never seem to be able to grow enough.