{"id":3069,"date":"2009-05-13T04:00:02","date_gmt":"2009-05-13T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=3069"},"modified":"2009-05-13T04:00:02","modified_gmt":"2009-05-13T09:00:02","slug":"free_market_halal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/05\/free_market_halal\/","title":{"rendered":"Economics: Free market halal"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/halal_subway.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\">How dare they<\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>After many requests from customers in areas with significant Muslim populations, Kentucky Fried Chicken (sorry.. KFC) has decided to open 8 of its 720 outlets in the United Kingdom (London, specifically) as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-1177969%2FFast-food-chain-KFC-converts-London-restaurants-halal-menu.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">halal-only<\/a> restaurants. That means all pork has been stripped from the restaurant, in order to clear any doubt about halal-ness. Because of KFC\u2019s high international profile, there are some expected negative reactions from those who fear an overrun of Muslim laws on British (sorry\u2026 American) foods. <\/p>\n<p>But this trend has been around for quite a while. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk%2Ffoodanddrink%2Ffoodanddrinknews%2F4590251%2FDominos-Pizza-outlet-bans-pork-in-favour-of-halal-menu.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Dominos Pizza<\/a> opened it\u2019s first halal-only store in Birmingham in February and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zabihah.com%2Fcd.php%3Fid%3D6\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Subway<\/a> has been operating dozens of its 2,000 restaurants as halal-only stores since 2007. Before that, McDonald\u2019s had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.euromonitor.com%2FSpotlighting_Europes_Muslim_consumers\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">halal-trial chicken<\/a> offered in select stores since 2006.<\/p>\n<p>For the multinationals behind these brands, the issue is not about religious deference \u2013 it\u2019s about sales. One look around Britain\u2019s high streets shows an inordinate amount of independent shops with brisk trades in halal chickens, pizzas, and sandwiches \u2013 all missing the consistent quality that well-regulated franchised outlets can provide. For most of the current crop of mainstream halal foods being offered, all have been validated on economics alone, with the increase in Muslim consumers far outweighing the ideologically motivated opponents who turn away. <\/p>\n<p>In the end, the free market will decide who wins and loses \u2013 and how much halal is offered. When Asda (owned by Walmart and resembling its American stores) started offering quality halal meats at 10 of its British locations, much of the criticism was not from Islam-critics fearful of \u201cEurabia,\u201d but from independent Muslim butchers who felt that they <a href=\"http:\/\/www.app.com.pk%2Fen_%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D35981%26Itemid%3D1\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">can\u2019t compete<\/a> with the big boys. Seems like a little competition might hurt after all.<\/p>\n<p><i>Zahed Amanullah is Associate Editor of altmuslim.com. He is based in London, England<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the multinationals behind the fast food brands such as KFC, Subway, and McDonalds that are experimenting with halal food offerings in the United Kingdom, the issue is not about religious deference to Muslims. It&#8217;s about sales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":531,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asides"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Economics: Free market halal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For the multinationals behind the fast food brands such as KFC, Subway, and McDonalds that are experimenting with halal food offerings in the United Kingdom, the issue is not about religious deference to Muslims. It&#039;s about sales.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/05\/free_market_halal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Economics: Free market halal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the multinationals behind the fast food brands such as KFC, Subway, and McDonalds that are experimenting with halal food offerings in the United Kingdom, the issue is not about religious deference to Muslims. 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