Politics Of Spinning Cones and a Jealous God
The Enlightenment happened at half past 12 a.m. in Burger King, Park Royal.
That is an excellent first sentence. It happens to be from an interview with a young British Muslim who has cost Burger King “thousands of pounds” in package redesign. It seems that last September, at half past 12 a.m., in Burger King, Park Royal, the young man realized that the “spinning cone” design on his ice cream lid actually spelled “Allah.” Rather than see this as a happy miracle, as a devout Catholic might, the young man was offended and shouted his displeasure from the figurative rooftops. Burger King apologized and agreed to a redesign with guidance from the Muslim Council of Britain.
(Plenty of folks already have, and will, jump up and down and howl about Islam and its cultural totalitarianism. Other than the crazy young man, this story has nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with profit motive. If I were to shout at Burger King about some offense to Christianity in its packaging, they would laugh me out of the office because they are already secure in the global Christian market. Burger King sacrificed secularism of its own accord. It is the agent in this story, not the victim.)
You can read an interview with the young man here. It’s very good. The tantalizing first sentence kicks off a swelling of righteous rage that concludes with the Wagnerian rumble of the final sentence:
I’m going to bring this country down.
Judge Burger King’s offense for yourselves:
Burger King's lid looks nothing like Arabic, let alone the Arabic word "Allah"