It's not just about the inalienable right to order a bacon burger.
To me, the point is the bigger picture...not just the halal food, but the halal preparation process. I found this whole French skirmish interesting because after 4 years living/working in muslim countries I learned the halal food process is not that benign.
It's not just what is on the menu, but behind the scenes how the food is slaughtered, prepared, processed, transported, stored, handled and served. The animal must be bled to death and slaughtered in the name of Allah. The tools and machinery and facilities must be purified and certified. It also means ensuring your employees are fully trained and committed to proper handling of halal foods.
You can do your own halal search, if interested, but here is one quick summary from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:
link
Quote:
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Originally Posted by prb
Islam is not a benign element that gives and takes. It takes.
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Where I agree with PRB is that I see this as the beginning of a one-way transition process.
Step 1 is offering halal exclusive food on menus, which is usually a marketing gimmick to make more money. Ah, but once that door is open, here comes the next few steps.
Step 2 will be the customer objections to the halal food, saying "you marketed it as 'halal' but it's not really 'halal' because it is not slaughtered according to Islamic law," thereby pressuring Quick to make their halal standards more strict (which changes the processes for supply chain, vendor selection, food quality and auditing, and maybe even food costs).
Step 3 will be the complaints that the food is still not 'halal' because those employees preparing it aren't trained/certified in Islamic dietary law (which changes the hiring/training/management process).
Step 4 will be the objections that the Quick kitchens are not really 'halal' because the tools/utensils are not purified according to Islamic dietary law.........and so on and so forth.
As an example of the above, KFC started offering halal meat in some of its UK restaurants in 2009, which was quickly followed by Muslim objections:
link
However, YMMV. Be interested to continue to hear all of your opinions on this.
o5