Word: roubaix
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...latest brouhaha was sparked by René Vandierendonck, the socialist mayor of the northern city of Roubaix, who this month railed against his local Quick outlet over its Nov. 30 decision to remove bacon burgers from its menu and replace them with a version using halal beef and a slice of smoked turkey. "It's discrimination" against non-Muslim customers, Vandierendonck said. The mayor has filed charges with justice authorities against Quick for what he says is prejudicial religious catering. He has also lodged a complaint with France's main antidiscrimination authority on the matter. "Yes to diversity...
Unsurprisingly, Marine Le Pen, vice president of France's far-right National Front Party, whose power base lies near Roubaix, has been quick to jump on the issue. France, she says, needs to be defended from Islam's growing influence. Quick's halal option is "an Islamic tax" on diners. Not to be outdone, members of the ruling conservative Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) have also fretted over Quick's menu change. UMP secretary general Xavier Bertrand says it is undermining France's secular, integrationist social model, while UMP parliamentarian Richard Mallié salutes Vandierendonck's "republican combat...
Critics of Vandierendonck point out that Roubaix's Quick outlet is one of just eight in France to adapt its menu to its predominantly Muslim customers and claim that the controversy, coming after those about Muslim dress and religious symbols, is evidence of a deep prejudice against Islam. "Would there have been all these resounding denunciations had Quick decided to position itself in, say, the biological food niche rather than halal?" asks Muslim consumer blog Al Kanz. "Would thematic Quick menus offering only Mexican or Chinese food make such noise in the media? No, assuredly not." (See an article...
...Lionel Dumont, a 33-year-old Frenchman believed to have ties to al-Qaeda. Dumont was arrested in Germany in December and extradited to France last month for crimes he was convicted of committing there in the 1990s while a member of a radical Islamist group known as the Roubaix gang. For now, four of the men-two from Bangladesh, one from Mali and another from India-are being held only on immigration violations, while another Bangladeshi has been charged with falsifying official documents. But the police are investigating whether Dumont, a French national of Algerian descent who lived...
...Roubaix, a thriving textile center in the 19th century, was hit by a slump in the '60s. These days the Roubaisiens who have jobs - unemployment is 14% - tend to work in retail and advertising rather than in factories. Figuring that tourism could be an option for a place that had run short of them, in 1990 Gaudichon persuaded the city to convert the derelict swimming pool into a home for Roubaix's unseen treasures. They included a unique hoard of textile patterns and samples dating back to 1839, as well as an art collection that had been closed to public...