Readers of Vlad will know we follow two threads especially. Artists and Islam and for very important reasons, not the least of which, is that artists like gay groups which are famously liberal (as are we at Vlad) have somehow been conned into joining the most illiberal forces on earth today masquerading as human rights groups or ‘peace’ groups. This tactic is what destroyed an otherwise pretty decent Iran. And the Jihad against starbucks. Initially it was a kind of curiosity to us. How the left and militant Islam had joined forces to try and destroy Starbucks. We have seen Starbucks locations destroyed in Europe during pro Hamas demonstrations and various locations of Starbucks in Canada and elsewhere have had peculiar protests and memo’s from head office. Muslims with a motive of pure anti semitism have managed to co-opt students leftists and basically anyone stupid or uneducated enough to wear a Che T shirt, to attack Starbucks for the ‘anti corporate’ agenda so fashionable with kids who do not have to pay their own bills. Kristallnacht will happen again, it will happen soon, and it will start at Starbucks.
Now we have this in Lebanon…
From The Lebanon Daily Star Beirut:
Activists protest against Starbucks, drive off customers
By Marc Abizeid
Special to The Daily Star
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
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BEIRUT: About 25 young activists belonging to the Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth (ULDY) demonstrated outside a Beirut Starbucks Monday evening to protest the Seattle-based coffee shop’s ties to Israel. Members handed out leaflets and shouted slogans outside the store, catching the attention of passers-by and virtually ending all traffic heading in for a drink. A handful of police officers guarded the entrance of the store while two army trucks unloaded about a dozen soldiers across the street in anticipation of violence.
“It’s not just Starbucks that we’re demonstrating against,” 25-year-old ULDY member Hassan Zeitouny said. “It’s a demonstration against all that send aid to Israel, especially those that give money to Israelis to return back to Israel.”
ULDY – a leftist organization with ties to the Lebanese Communist Party – organized a similar demonstration outside the Hamra Starbucks during Israel’s devastating 22-day assault on Gaza in January. The group is also active in the larger campaign to boycott other American products and companies which it accuses of supporting Israel such as CocaCola and Phillip Morris.
The activists held signs up to the cafe’s windows with one displaying a drawing of a Starbucks’ cup overflowing with blood while another carried a mock-menu offering “coffee to kill my family,” and “espresso to knock down my house.”
Cheers were sung as each customer left the shop. After the last customers exited quietly, the cafe was left empty except for a few discouraged-looking employees sitting around a table drinking their own product.
“It’s good that people are leaving. I think they understood something – they understood this shop here is against Lebanon,” Zeitouni said. “Some citizens don’t know that Starbucks gives money to Israel while others know but don’t want to understand how much this flies in the face of what we stand for.”
What sheer stupidity. Have I missed something? Instead of intimidating customers who have every right to spend their money in whatever restaurant, store or establishment they choose, maybe these youngsters should open their own cafe and promote their ideology to the hilt. But hey, that would be too commercial, too capitalist, too consumer, too America. Still I think a Palestinian Perk or a Crescent Coffee would suit most urban, leftist centres.
The Muslims and the left have another thing in common. Neither of them build things. They just criticize and tear down successful things others do.
But an Islamic coffee shop would be a blast I bet.