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KFC and the BNP

by · 11th May, 2009

Harry’s Place » KFC and the BNP

Edmund Standing at Harry’s Place on the Islamophobic reaction to the decision by KFC to offer halaal meat at eight of their outlets. The usual suspects have been whingeing, among them Robert Spencer who detects “Islamic supremacist assertions that non-Muslims must abide by Islamic norms”, when in fact this is plainly a move by a commercial organisation to please its customers, or attract more customers:

Now firstly, KFC is an American company and its restaurants are famous for serving Southern fried chicken. I’m not wanting to come over all Naomi Klein on the issue, but if there is any kind of ‘colonisation’ going on here it’s colonisation by American culture, given the fact there are now 720 KFC stores nationwide, all of which are no doubt contributing to the ‘crushing’ of our ‘indigenous’ fish and chip shops and greasy spoon cafes by ‘invading’ the British market with their foreign chicken dishes. How ironic that an insular minded political party that professes a hatred of globalisation should be so upset about what happens to American fast food chains in this country.

Secondly, what a load of nonsense anyway. Businesses, last time I checked, work on the basis of making a profit from serving their customers with a desired product. It is quite obvious why KFC is trialling halal meat and it has nothing to do with ‘colonisation’ by a Muslim conspiracy and everything to do with making more money. If you go into any urban area in Britain with a significant Muslim presence you will find that almost all independent outlets selling fried chicken are halal certified. There is a good financial reason for doing this - it means more customers. And, despite ethical issues surrounding ritual slaughter, I never saw any shortage of non-Muslim customers frequenting such fast food businesses in my time living in Cardiff, London, and Birmingham. After all, let’s face it, if you don’t care about the birds having to live their entire lives shut away in factory farms, it’s hard to see why you should suddenly be so filled with compassion for them at their moment of death.

Given the fact that numerous independent restaurants and smaller chains already sell halal chicken wings and chicken burgers, it is clearly counterproductive for KFC not to.

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