What’s interesting about the following news report is that a French court was able to shut down a halal-only grocery store because the premises were owned by the municipality, and were thus covered by the laws on laïcité — that is, the store was required to cater to a general clientele, and not solely to members of a particular faith.
Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
00:00 | It’s a neighborhood grocery store for more than five thousand inhabitants. | |
00:04 | In its aisles the huge majority of products are halal. | |
00:08 | From meat to candy. Here there’s no pork or alcohol. | |
00:12 | Therefore the judicial decision was served, and it orders the closing | |
00:16 | of the store. Most customers are flabbergasted. —All this | |
00:20 | is idiotic, because in this store there’s everything: there are fruits, vegetables… | |
00:24 | This is discrimination! Yes, yes! Absolutely. All that, because there is no pork and no alcohol! | |
00:28 | It’s not normal that they have to close, because the neighborhood needs it. | |
00:33 | It’s essential… —Are there many people who come here? | |
00:37 | Oh yes! Oh yes! Oh yes! —I don’t know what will be put here instead, but no, it’s, | |
00:41 | it’s ridiculous, in fact. But for others, this grocery store, isn’t really perfect. | |
00:45 | It’s true, that for us, it’s difficult, because there are things that we don’t find, which we need | |
00:49 | for which sometimes we have to go to Leclerc [another grocery], which we could have bought here. | |
00:53 | The landlord of this grocery store is the town hall of Colombes. And the contract stipulates: | |
00:57 | “a general grocery store”. For the court in Nanterre, | |
01:01 | a halal grocery store isn’t a general grocery store. | |
01:05 | “The special orientation of the business towards selling products destined not for all customers, | |
01:09 | but for specific buyers — halal products, oriental products — is restrictive and doesn’t correspond | |
01:13 | to the expansive notion of the general grocery.” This decision is a victory | |
01:18 | for the mayor, who, for the past two years, tried to convince the manager | |
01:22 | to diversify his business. —This is a public property. | |
01:26 | It’s subordinate to the municipal office of the neighborhood. | |
01:30 | So it was a service we were offering to the population. And I am the mayor, and I am secular. | |
01:34 | We need to respect secularism in the neighborhood! The manager of | |
01:38 | the store has already announced that he’ll appeal the eviction. |
Uh, why couldn’t a Mono/Miniprix or Carrefour Express go into this location?
[…] there are plenty of small Carrefour markets in alpine villages across France?
One small step forward for the French population and hopefully one giant step back for the halal customers.