A French town in a Paris suburb has told a halal supermarket that if it doesn’t start selling alcohol and pork, the store will be aggressively shut down.
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The Good Price discounted mini-market in Colombes only sells “halal” food – a term for food and drink that Muslims are allowed to eat under Islamic law – which means non-halal food like pork and alcohol are not sold in the market.
The halal mini-market took the place of another supermarket in the same neighborhood past year.
Mayor Nicole Goueta is reported to have visited the store personally to ask the owners to “diversify the range of products” and add alcohol and non-halal meats.
According to Besnard, older residents in the community had complained after the halal store replaced another mini-market past year, saying they could no longer purchase everything they needed to.
It has argued that members of the local community in Colombes are not being served properly by the shop if there are no pork or alcohol products sold there. “We don’t want any area that is only Muslim or any area where there are no Muslims”, Besnard told The Telegraph. “We don’t want any area that is only Muslim or any area where there are no Muslims”, adding that the reaction would have been the same if a kosher store had been planned to be opened at the same spot.
But the manager of the shop, Soulemane Yalcin, has argued that they cater to the demands of local customers.
“It’s business”, said Mr Yalcin.
But the mayor has said he is outraged by the “provocation”, and has vowed to use a local bylaw to ban the event on the grounds that it could provoke public disorder.
“I look around me and I target what I see”. The lease states “general food store and related activities” – but it all depends on how you interpret “related activities”‘.
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Most recently, a town in southern France chose to ban the use of a swimming pool by women only.
