Islamophobia for Dummies
Halal KFC Customer Insults Employee Over
Bacon
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Today we'll be showing an example of how Islamophobes
distort reality to vilify Islam. KFC Australia suspended an employee for his
reaction to an abusive and offensive customer.Now, the employee definitely
deserves the suspension, but he also deserves the benefit of the doubt
because he wasn't the aggressor. A KFC Australia spokesman told MSN NZ that
in this halal outlet a customer became angry after being refused bacon, and
then "directed offensive language and became abusive towards the team
member" according to witnesses that were there. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8192344/kfc-employee-screams-insults-at-customer Someone then adds injury to insult (more than "insult to injury") by trying to record this abused employee, who gets very angry, not about Bacon, but about the fact that he's being recorded. Now, the title of the recent article on Fox News is " Muslim KFC Employee Erupts at Customer for Ordering Bacon ". http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2011/01/06/muslim-kfc-employee-erupts-customer-ordering-bacon This Fox article, other articles, and most of the youtube mirrors of the video, misrepresent WHY the employee loses his temper. As we'll see from the clip, the verbally abused & insulted KFC employee being recorded (in the center of the screen) doesn't mention Bacon even once, but he objects profusely 5 times TO BEING RECORDED by the abusive customers: Other Employee: ...no, no, he didn't know that, that's alright. We don't have bacon. Abused Employee: 1) Don't record me (bleep). 2) Don't (bleep) record me. 3) (inaudible) (bleep) record me. 4) Stop (bleep), don't record me you little (bleep) 5) Stop (bleep) recording me. I'll break your head first. To vilify Islam, people are "assuming" that the employee is a Muslim, because it's UNCLEAR from the video and from KFC's statement: youtube.com/ramio1983 : How do you know this kid's a Muslim? I mean, did you see him praying out the back? Did he scream Allahu Akbar? And even if he did, that still doesn't make him a Muslim. Did he give you change with a Quran? I mean, how do you know this kid's a Muslim? We contacted KFC's spokesman and he said that the employee's religion hasn't been released, so Fox News and anyone claiming that the employee is a Muslim, has absolutely no evidence. More importantly, how can anyone in their right mind claim this has anything to do with his religious feelings about bacon. This is about an "offensive" customer being "abusive" to a KFC employee, and that employee refusing to have any more of that offensive abuse recorded on video. An Australian news report suggests that this could be something even worse. Today Tonight : ...like KFC that cater for their (Muslims) needs are under attack. Customers armed with video cameras are taunting Muslim staff members until they reach breaking point. James Thomas reports on a shocking new trend. To abusive, offensive customers: don't record me... don't **** record me... record me... don't record me... Bill Muehlenberg, Family Council of Victoria : Somebody asks for bacon on their food product, and the person working at the store went quite ballistic as a result of that. That's a lie. The KFC employee "went ballistic" when he thought that the abusive customers were trying to record some more of this abuse. Terry O'Gormon, Council of Civil Liberties : There's a saying that a picture tells 1,000 words. This picture could tell 10,000 words, 9,000 of which we haven't seen. James Thomas, Today Tonight : This video has ignited a mighty row. On the face of it, the KFC employee has just abused a customer, but what did the customer say to the worker to provoke such an outburst. A statement from KFC infers that the staff member was also abused with offensive language by a customer upset because the store didn't have what the customer wanted. KFC don't condone his response and are investigating. James Thomas : Family Council of Victoria's Bill Muehlenberg is concerned that stores such as KFC and McDonald's adopting halal only outlets is a sign of the Islamification of Australia. Bill Muehlenberg : It is a concern if that's where some of this is heading, where people are now expecting ordinary Australians to be halal compliant instead of it being the other way around. What, "other way around"? So instead of opening halal restaurants to get Muslim customers, he expects Muslims to eat non-halal food. That's tolerance for you. Terry O'Gormon : KFC are entitled to have halal stores in particular areas where there are a large Muslim population. They're entitled to have Irish stew for areas of Irish derivation. James Thomas : Council of Civil Liberties' Terry O'Gormon fears the halal restaurant incident has little to do with a customer missing out on pork and a lot to do with racial and religious prejudice. Terry O'Gormon : Overseas, particularly in France, where there is a significant anti-Muslim feeling that's generated by far-right extremist groups, there are people who go into halal stores dressed in pigs heads deliberately to try to provoke a reaction. So let's keep in mind, is this a genuine incident or is it a set-up incident. James Thomas : Of their 600 stores KFC has only 3 certified halal stores around the country : 2 in New South Wales and 1 in Victoria. McDonald's has a total of 10 halal stores : 6 are based in New South Wales, and 4 in Victoria. They have avoided trouble like the KFC outburst here, but overseas the chain's staff have weathered torrents of abuse from patrons worried that the Golden Arches is converting to Islam and therefore halal food. No one's trying to convert McDonald's to Islam. Many non-Muslims who aren't prejudiced think very highly of halal food. According to Duncan James, of The Brand Union: “With a lot halal products there is a high overlap with organic, purity, cleanliness and a lot of non-Muslims would buy halal because they consider it cleaner." http://www.arabianbusiness.com/multinationals-go-halal-tap-muslim-market-348449.html Howard Sattler : I think normally if you went into a restaurant or a cafe like that or a fast food outlet, you'd expect that you could order bacon. That's a reasonable request. But it's not reasonable for the customer to become abusive and offensive for not getting bacon. James Thomas : Radio broadcaster Howard Sattler viewed the video of the KFC incident and agrees the young staff member may have been set up, but he has little sympathy for his reaction to the taunts. Howard Sattler : He's a lunatic, an absolute mental case, and should never be allowed to serve a customer again. Based on this harsh judgment, the abusive customer is even more of a lunatic, and the abusive customer should never be allowed to serve customers again. If it had been a Muslim who was being offensive and abusive because they didn't get what they were expecting to eat, the headlines would have been a lot different. You know what I'd like to see? I'd like to see this customer who's angry about not getting bacon go to a Kosher McDonald's and be abusive and offensive to this guy: Israeli Settler : You and your (bleep) Jesus can kiss my (bleep) OK. ...Don't camera, no camera. I break camera, don't take picture. Okay. Screw you, you Nazi. You (bleep). Don't take camera. I break your camera, don't take picture. No picture, we don't want picture. British film crew : You can't come in here, this is not your house. Israeli Settler : We killed Jesus, we're proud of it. ...This is my land, you (bleep). British film crew : This is not your land, it belongs to these families. Israeli Settler : We're gonna kill you and the Palestinians, you ... you Nazi, you son of a (bleep). ...This is my land. God gave it to me. (bleep) you. ...You Nazi. Call everyone you want, I'm gonna kill you. Bastards. This is my house. This is my land. God gave it to me. And (bleep) you. The KFC employee's reaction was NOT religiously motivated. The Israeli settler's reaction was VERY religiously motivated. This is exactly the media hypocrisy that we're talking about. They want to pose us as being intolerant because we don't eat pork, but the Israeli settler threatens to KILL Palestinians and Christians who don't want to help him steal Palestinian lands, because God gave him those lands. Where's the outrage over the US & Israeli governments' forcing Jewish beliefs on Palestinian Muslims & Christians? Apparently, getting bacon is more important to these bigots than the oppression & murder of Palestinians. But you're saying, these are fast food incidents, they're not about Palestine. They're about ANGER... ANGER over not being able to order bacon, right? People can't really be so prejudiced against Muslims, that they're afraid of halal food, can they? Stephen Colbert : Tonight, are Muslims taking over our food supply? Is it any coincidence that bananas are crescent shaped? This is the Muslim Threat Down... Muslim Threat #2: Soup. Folks, observant Muslims can eat only food that is halal. It's like Kosher, only in no way Kosher. Well brace yourself because right-wing blogs are reporting that Campbell's has a line of halal soups. ... Conservative blogger Pam Geller, who also raised the alarm against the Ground Zero Mosque, called for consumers to boycott Campbell's. ... Even our supermarkets aren't sacred. How dare they construct a Tower of Islamic soup so close to Ground Beef. It's offensive. ... Now this boycott hits me particularly hard because, as you remember, I am heavily invested in Campbell's stock: chicken and beef. It's very diversified. So instead, I am calling on Campbell's to balance their pro-Islam soups with soups that are offensive to Muslims. ... instead of Chicken & Stars, it'll be Pork & Cartoons of Mohammed. ... Oh, they call me crazy when I said baby carrots are trying to turn me gay, well now carrot soup is trying to turn me Muslim. So let's see the real news about Campbell's halal soup controversy. CNBC Erin Burnett : Campbell's Soup was selling halal compliant soups...in Canada, when a conservative American blogger took note and called for a boycott of Campbell products. ... Campbell's Soup now says it has no plans to offer halal soups in America, meaning Campbell will not get a piece of the nearly $200 billion market to sell to American Muslims. CAIR Amina Rubin : I think this whole thing is just a manufactured controversy. Campbell's like any company, should be able to make their business decisions based on their bottom line. And in this case, Pamela Geller and her group are just taking this as an excuse. Even a dietary accommodation they find to be threatening, and they're trying to whip up fear about Muslims in this country. Sallie James, Cato Institute : ...I think the boycott is dumb, and I might choose to boycott Campbell's because they have caved to this boycott, if that's what they've done. ...and I think it's important to keep in mind here that if the market is indeed as big as what you say, if Campbell's have just announced that they're not going to enter this niche market for halal soup, that sounds to me like a great opportunity for an entrepreneur to say, 'Hey, the market leader of soup has just declared they're not going to get into this niche. That's an opportunity for me to supply these products to a, apparently, large and growing market.' ... Stephen Colbert : Well thank goodness the rest of our grocery shelves are safe...wrong! Cuz Muslim Threat #1 is cereal. ...Right-wing blogs have also discovered that the prize at the bottom of our breakfast cereal may just be Jihad, because in the UK, Kellogg's makes over 25 halal cereals, ... I'm sure some of you out there are asking, ' Stephen, can accidentally eating halal food make you Muslim? ' Yes! The funny thing is that almost everything in the 4 food groups is already "secretly" halal: fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy products, fish, beans, nuts, eggs, coca cola, water. Islamophobes, eat your hearts out! Stephen Colbert : ...and 1 blog asks, " are their U.S. products secretly halal? " Certainly, some of their more high fiber offerings have declared a fatwa on my colon. ... And if this trend continues ladies and gentlemen, pretty soon, the new slogan for Trix will be " Silly Rabbit, Trix are for puppets of the Zionist state ". In conclusion, Islamophobes will distort anything, even THEIR own LOVE for BACON, in their ridiculous fear mongering crusade against Muslims. Which explains the origin of the expression "bacon brains" (clownish blockhead). Critics of Islam want to take offense that fast food companies want to sell halal food to Muslims, and their "morality" allows them to abuse and offend fast food employees if they can't order bacon. I don't see them protesting Kosher restaurants or vegetarian restaurants...they're putting on their pig hats and instigating trouble at halal restaurants on purpose. The KFC employee's reaction was not on purpose. Halal restaurants are very successful in Muslim communities... I get it. Islam bashers are jealous that the Muslim market is such a viable segment. Look, it's not our fault that there's not a lot of demand for a Bigot Burger King, Crusade Fried Chicken, or Auntie Semite's Pretzels. |
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