A French council has filed a complaint against a fast food chain that uses only halal meat in its burgers. The mayor of a town called Roubaix in northern France described the choice of meat at the fast food chain, called Quick, as “discrimination against non-Muslims†and filed a complaint based on discrimination at a regional court in Lille. Maybe I’m being under-sensitive, but I’m pretty sure that one restaurant selling halal food does not condemn Mayor Rene Vandierendonck to surviving on a diet entirely of “Muslim food.†Would Vandierendonck even have noticed if he was not looking for another reason to conveniently vilify the burka-wearing, shisha-smoking savages known as Muslims? To add irony to injury, the region which Mayor Vandierendonck represents is approximately 50 percent Muslim. Yes, this may sound like a lot of beards, even for a “socialist†like Vandierendonck, but you cannot blame a company for trying to find an angle back into the market. I would love to see this case end up in court. How can it be discrimination to offer halal meat? It’s not as though eating halal food as a non-Muslim with give you leprosy. At least with halal food, you have a guarantee that there are no hooves or beaks in your shawerma. Besides, nobody is forcing the Mayor to eat there. If you want to eat pork, then go to your closest McDonald's. There’s one round the corner from the Quick chain in Roubaix. If Vandierendonck dislikes the way that Muslims have left their mark on Roubaix and indeed France as a whole, then he ought to renounce all the popular things that they have brought to the hexagon-country.  France boasts the use of numbers that were invented by Muslims, clothes that were designed in Muslim countries, philosophies and music that came from Muslims. And falafel. Is it discrimination to offer these along with “French†things? After the Islamo-omniscient vice-president of the French National Front warned of “Islamization,†Mayor Vandierendonck explained that he is not bothered by the fact that there is a halal menu, but that “this is going too far because it is the only menu on offer and it has become discrimination.” Discrimination against whom exactly?  Would we call it discrimination against Egyptians if an Italian restaurant in Cairo sold nothing but pasta and pizza? Is it discrimination to have Chinese supermarkets in predominantly Chinese neighborhoods? Isn't that why they call it China Town? There is always another restaurant or supermarket around the corner. Even if it was a brave move – Mr Vandierendonck being mayor of the municipality with the highest proportion of Muslims in France – the menu at Quick is just another excuse to air the blanket of French Islamophobia that is edging ever closer to being commonplace. Good luck holding on to that Mayorship. BM
