The American Muslim (TAM)

Whole Foods Almost Acknowledged American Muslims as Human Beings - update 8/11

Sheila Musaji
Posted Aug 11, 2011 •Permalink • Printer-Friendly Version

Whole Foods Almost Acknowledged American Muslims as Human Beings

by Sheila Musaji

Pamela Geller has said that she “loves Muslims”. Actually she has repeated this statement more than once, “I am not anti-Muslim. I love Muslims. I am pro-freedom and anti-islamic supremacism.” And As David Neiwert noted But really, does Pam Geller “love” Muslims? I suppose—in the same way a dog loves a rag doll he’s chewed to shreds, or a sadist adores the whipping boy chained up down in his dungeon.

Geller and all the other Islamophobes are constantly protesting that they don’t have a problem with Muslims, only with Islam.

I have to say that an article posted by Pamela Geller this week objecting to a newspaper page for children with games and information about Ramadan, and another posted by Debbie Schlussel objecting to Whole Foods acknowledging Ramadan are very clear signs that what the Islamophobes feel is pure, unadulterated hatred for Muslims, even Muslim children.

Schlussel said a lot of hateful things in her article including And, now, there is the Ramadan crap, solely for monetary reasons. Yes, like ALL other American corporations, Whole Foods is whoring itself out to Islam for profits. And as more and more Muslims populate America through immigration and high birth rates, more and more corporations will shill for jihadist interests. It’s that simple. We’ve already seen it with Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and others. And now this from Whole Jihad Foods. The question is, how long ’til Whole Foods no longer carries pork and other non-halal products? Answer: Not long.

Of course, as a civilized society made up of people from many backgrounds, we acknowledge and respect each other. The NY Times posts Hanukkah recipes, there are craft pages for children to learn about Hanukkah. Whole foods acknowledges Passover, Christmas, and Easter with promotions, special foods including Kosher foods, etc. There are postage stamps not only for Christmas and Hanukkah, but also for Eid.

No one objects to any of these except for the Eid stamp which acknowledges Muslims, making halal foods for Muslims, acknowledging Muslim holidays, etc. When Best Buy made the mistake of acknowledging Eid, they discovered the depths of Islamophobic hatred. Muslims have not objected to any of these acknowledgements of other religious groups, and in fact are pleased to see such signs of acceptance of our varied heritages.

The Anti Defamation League (ADL) has taken notice of this controversy and released a statement for which they should be thanked:

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has found no evidence to claims by some bloggers on the Internet that Whole Foods Market is “anti-Israel.”

In particular, some have specifically criticized a Whole Foods seasonal promotion around halal foods that meet the company’s high quality standards. Such criticism is misguided, inappropriate and contrary to American values. We live in a multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-faith society.

Just as Whole Foods provides prepared food, recipes, and specialty items (including products imported from Israel) to Jewish customers for Passover and other holiday observances, it is entirely fitting for them to do the same for customers marking Muslim, Hindu and other religious festivals.

The articles by Schlussel and Geller made me sad, but initially I thought that such rantings are receiving less and less support, and the ADL statement was a good counter to the bigotry. And, just reading the posts should be enough to let any reasonable person know that those complaining are absolutely insane hate-mongers. I was wrong. It seems that Whole Foods has backed down.

Katherine Shilcutt in the Houston Press reports

Under pressure from right-wing bloggers who blindly associate Ramadan and Muslims with terrorism and burqas, Whole Foods has sent an email to its stores across the United States in which it specifically tells stores not to promote Ramadan this year.

Just last week, Whole Foods began its promotion of Saffron Road’s line of halal products throughout the holiday, which ends on August 29, via writer Yvonne Maffei’s blog, My Halal Kitchen. That promotion was waylaid by what seems like a very small amount of criticism, according to an internal email that the Houston Press obtained recently.

“It is probably best that we don’t specifically call out or ‘promote’ Ramadan,” reads a portion of that email. “We should not highlight Ramadan in signage in our stores as that could be considered ‘Celebrating or promoting’ Ramadan.”

... “We recently introduced a line of frozen products in Grocery that are Halal certified (meet Muslim dietary laws) called Saffron Road,” continues the email. “With the introduction of this line company wide, and the beginning of Ramadan last week, we posted a product giveaway on the Whole Story blog (on July 31) to generate awareness and interest in the products. Some people have misinterpreted the blog post to mean we are celebrating or promoting Ramadan in our stores. The misinterpretation has generated some negative feedback from a small segment of vocal and angry consumers and bloggers.”

... Despite a statement from the Anti-Defamation League that Whole Foods and its Ramadan promotion aren’t vaguely anti-Semitic, the association between a holiday that represents a time of patience, humility and charity for Muslims across the world and Jihadist terrorism is apparently so strong with a small, vocal minority that Whole Foods has capitulated to these people—who surely can’t represent the chain’s larger demographic—and buried its former Ramadan promotions as if they were a dirty secret.

Whole Foods sent out an email attempting to explain which says

Whole Foods Market is NOT cancelling our current halal promotion, which is centered around the timeframe of Ramadan. We invite shoppers seeking out not just halal certified products, but products that also meet our high quality standards to try Saffron Road and other regional offerings in our stores.

We never sent a communication from our headquarters requesting stores take down signs at all. We have 12 different operating regions and one region reacted by sending out directions to promote Halal and not specifically Ramadan after some online negative comments.

We’re excited to be offering high quality halal products for our shoppers and we stand behind them and our promotion of them, just like we do with other seasonal and holiday products.

What I understand this to say is that the email in question was not sent out nationwide, but only in one region, they will still offer halal foods, and this halal line is being offered “centered around the timeframe of Ramadan”. That’s a pretty carefully worded statement that actually matches up with the leaked email which said “Whole Foods Is Not Promoting Ramadan”. The only way to know if they will still post signs, or offer recipes, or in any way acknowledge Ramadan is to make a visit to your local Whole Foods and see with your own eyes. Perhaps Muslims will be given a secret password and then be shown where the halal foods are kept. The region that sent out the email seems to have been the Texas region, so we know for certain where they stand.

I would like to see Whole Foods say - yes, we are celebrating Ramadan, so what?

Google Whole Foods Easter, or Whole Foods Passover, or Whole Foods Christmas - and lots will come up that seems to “celebrate” these holidays including menus, large selections of appropriate food items, etc.

— Here is one Whole Foods store that had an Egg-Stravaganza where the two East Elementary School students designed Easter egg baskets, made their own bunny ears and took part in a Easter egg hunt throughout the supermarket with a group of more than 20 kids their age. Here’s another that held an Easter Brunch.
— Here’s one of their ads for Kosher for Passover offerings, and one for a Passover food tasting, another with fun Passover events.
— Here’s a Whole Foods ad that says their stores are full of Christmas spirit. You can visit the decorated Christmas Tree at this Whole Foods.
— And, here’s a Whole Foods store offering a cooking class celebrating Diwali Delights.
— And, here’s an article titled Whole Foods Market Celebrates Hanukkah With Festive Foods and Crafts. And, here’s a Menorah lighting ceremony complete with songs conducted by a local synagogue at a Whole Foods in Tarzana, California, and another in Contra Costa, California. And, a Hannukkah tasting at another Whole Foods.

You get the idea.

There is no reticence to clearly call these Easter/Passover/Christmas/Diwali/Hannukah products - they are not available “centered around the timeframe of” Easter/Passover/Christmas/Hannukkah/Diwali. These holidays are celebrated!

Celebrating the holidays of various religious communities is standard operating procedure for Whole Foods.

This double standard points to a certain level of bigotry within American society that is not acceptable. If Whole Foods, or any business must be so concerned that any positive acknowledgement of their Muslim customers might cause a backlash from enough of their non-Muslim customers to cause them to be fearful of openly treating even Muslim holidays in the same way they treat other holidays, what does that say about just how accepted bigotry towards Muslims has become. I am optimistic that Whole Foods is wrong, and that most Americans would not have a problem with a Ramadan display, but Whole Foods response does make a person wonder.

I am truly disappointed that CAIR chose to release a statement commending Whole Foods on continuing to offer halal products. Why should we thank them for allowing us to spend our money as long as it can be kept quiet? Why should we aquiess in our own marginalization? I hope that others besides Muslims see the bigotry here. I hope that others also ask where we are going as a society when even Muslim holidays are socially unacceptable, and when the majority silently gives in to the rantings of hate-mongers like Geller and Schlussel.

We’ll have to watch and see if any newspaper ever again has the temerity to post a children’s page about Ramadan, or any retailer has the courage to acknowledge Muslims in any way.

It seems obvious that Whole Foods has weighed its priorities and has decided that the Muslim community is expendable. They must believe that the anti-Muslim bloggers represent a majority opinion. I think that the American Muslim community should make the same decision about Whole Foods. There really are other places to shop.

UPDATE 8/10/2011

Katherine Shilcutt, the reporter who broke the original story with the leaked email has now posted an update including a screen shot of the full original emails from the home office and with the regional appended statement. Here is her take on the situation to date

The italicized portion of the email was appended by one particular region, as we have now learned: the Southwest Region, which covers Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. But the remainder of the email was sent out from Whole Foods’s corporate office to its marketing teams. Again, it’s easy to see that this started out as an entirely positive promotion that stumbled along the way. And it’s not as if this is a marketing disaster of epic proportions: It could be much, much worse. Instead, it’s a cautionary tale about letting a small minority dictate your actions, and failing to have the courage of your prior convictions.

One of our TAM readers from Southern California went into her local Whole Foods today and asked for the halal products. Here is the message she sent to me about what happened

I went in to Whole Foods today and looked for the Saffron Road halal items. Did not see them so spoke with the Manager who said the store was not carrying them. I asked who made that decision & he was not sure. I told him I would be posting my findings with The American Muslim magazine and hoped they would consider these items. Before I got out of the checkout line the young man came back with another store Rep and said they do have the products. Yeap, there they were in the refrigerator section. There is no promotion for Ramadan in the store, but the packages are clearly marked “halal”.

I would appreciate it if others could send me information about their local Whole Foods stores.

UPDATE 8/11/2011

The New York Daily News published an article about this controversy and included a question on which their readers could vote.

The question is Is it inappropriate for Whole Foods to promote Ramadan? Readers are given three choices for which to vote. Here are the responses as of 1:06 p.m. 8/11:

60% No. Whole Foods promotes Easter and Passover as well. Celebrating Ramadan is no different.
22% Yes. Promoting the holiday is anti-semitic.
19% It’s only inappropriate if they promote it in a way that’s disrespectful to Muslims or the community.

I am very pleased to see that a majority believe that it is appropriate to acknowledge Ramadan. I am absolutely shocked that 22% believe that Ramadan is anti-Semitic.