{"id":240,"date":"2009-02-13T08:08:33","date_gmt":"2009-02-13T08:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/halal-pizza.html"},"modified":"2009-02-13T08:08:33","modified_gmt":"2009-02-13T08:08:33","slug":"halal-pizza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/halal-pizza.html","title":{"rendered":"halal pizza"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pizza_1293894c.jpg\"<\/span>What happens when a Domino’s pizza decides to serve to all-halal<\/a> menu? The end of Western civilization, of course:<\/p>\n

\n

\nChris Yates, 29, a hospital worker living in Moseley, Birmingham, said he was
\ntold he couldn’t have a ‘Meteor’ pizza, topped with pepperoni, sausage,
\nmeatballs, ground beef and smoky bacon, when he called up at the weekend.\n<\/p>\n

\nHe said: “It’s a disgrace, I can appreciate them having it as an option
\nbut to have it completely halal is just not on,” he fumed.\n<\/p>\n

\n“I’m all for racial and religious tolerance but if anything this is
\nintolerant to my beliefs and discriminatory against me<\/b>.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Instead I had to travel two miles out of my way to another branch – I
\nwas appalled. “Hall Green is a mixed race area and should therefore
\ncater to its multicultural make-up.\n<\/p>\n

\n“In a society that promotes racial and religious integration, this sort
\nof things only isolates people<\/b>.”\n<\/p>\n

\nWhile Peter Merholz, 38, from Hall Green, added: “This is a global pizza
\nchain that is isolating western values<\/b> and choice. It’s alienating people
\nand that’s just not on.\n<\/p>\n

\n“I’d been coming here for ages but now I’ll go elsewhere because I can’t
\nget a pepperoni pizza<\/b>, which is what I always have.”\n<\/p>\n

\nHalal items on the menu include halal spicy beef sausage, roast and tandoori
\nchicken, halal pepperoni<\/b> and halal cured turkey – all produced and stored
\nwithin the Halal Food Authorities guidelines.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The reactions (emphasis mine) are illuminating. These members of the religious and cultural minority are so threatened by one halal pizza shop that they feel as if they are being discriminated against – and this despite the fact that pepperoni remains on the menu, and there are plenty of other pizza venues they can get their pig products from if their palates really are so refined as to discern the difference between halal and non-halal anyway (let’s face it. this is pizza<\/i> we are talking about, not foie gras).<\/p>\n

The predictable cries of “Dhimmitude” notwithstanding, this is actually a positive mark of assimilation and a good thing overall for the UK muslim community. It’s exactly the sort of thing that the putative Defenders of the West should be trumpeting as evidence of the West’s capability for religious tolerance and freedom. Instead, we have pepperoni ultimatums.<\/p>\n

It’s worth pointing out that the muslim world doesn’t seem too concerned about Burger King’s prime location in Mecca<\/a>. Also note that the Subway fast-food chain has many<\/a> Kosher outlets<\/a> now in the US. Their existence went largely unremarked and un-outraged. Frankly I think that Kosher and Halal should be combined. It wouldn’t be too hard to cross-certify food according to both standards, at least for basic staples. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What happens when a Domino’s pizza decides to serve to all-halal menu? The end of Western civilization, of course: Chris Yates, 29, a hospital worker living in Moseley, Birmingham, said he was told he couldn’t have a ‘Meteor’ pizza, topped with pepperoni, sausage, meatballs, ground beef and smoky bacon, when he called up at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[83,217,221,100,26,84],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-gash-of-civilizations","tag-dhimmitude","tag-food","tag-halal","tag-islamophobia","tag-politics","tag-uk"],"yoast_head":"\nhalal pizza - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"halal pizza - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What happens when a Domino’s pizza decides to serve to all-halal menu? The end of Western civilization, of course: Chris Yates, 29, a hospital worker living in Moseley, Birmingham, said he was told he couldn’t have a ‘Meteor’ pizza, topped with pepperoni, sausage, meatballs, ground beef and smoky bacon, when he called up at the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/halal-pizza.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-13T08:08:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/import\/pizza_1293894c.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"halal pizza - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"halal pizza - City of Brass","og_description":"What happens when a Domino’s pizza decides to serve to all-halal menu? 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}