AUSTRIA ! Where goest thou ?

At first I could not believe my eyes. 
So I started at the beginning and re-read the article in the local news paper of 11^th January 2016. I read most carefully, so as not to misinterpret anything reported therein:

There is a food chain in Austria, called “Spar” with outlets almost everywhere. A regular food supermarket, trying to satisfy every taste.

The management of this chain noted that Vienna housed many Muslims in certain districts which might make it profitable for Spar and comfortable shopping for the adherents to the Muslim Faith, to carry on its shelves food items prepared in accordance with Islamic rules.

Products, such as meats, must be prepared in accordance with the rules of “Halal” (permissible).

(Members of the Jewish persuasion prefer to shop in stores which offer “Kosher” items.)

Spar did, however, not count on the bigoted and narrow-minded nature of many Austrians.

A storm of protests rained down on Spar, obviously from people who thought it inappropriate to cater to a group of persons whose religious convictions differed from their own.

The usual low-intelligence, primitive and hate filled outcries: 
“If they want special treatment, they should go home, where they came from. There they can get all the Halal they want.” could be read on the Internet and heard during discussions in the Coffey-shops.

If Spar, or any other provider of foods and sundry items wishes to cater to a special group, why should any one object ? What harm does it do to anybody else ? Is it really any skin off their nose ?

Of course not.

These protests do not come from any reasonable thinking persons, but from those so hate-filled, so full of Islamophobia or, in fact, Xenophobia that they will not tolerate any variance from their own life style.

As if this were not enough, the banking institute “Bawag”, also in an effort to cater to the preferences of about 600,000 Muslims living in Austria, introduced special accounts which neither charge, nor pay interest, since this practice does not correspond with Islamic financial rules.

Instead of the calculation of interest, fixed fees in varying amounts are being charged or paid which satisfies their rules.

An absolute storm of protest rained down upon Bawag, again mainly through the Internet with comments like these:

“This constitutes the first step in the total Islamisation of Europe” and

“this is the saddest day in the History of Austrian Banking.” and

“given that this Bank bows down to the demands of religious minorities, I shall at once close my account there.

It seems that statements like the above again emanate not from a clear thinking person's careful considerations, but from the addled minds of  haters of all that is not their own.

I regret to have to report that the first mentioned Spar has abandoned their effort to carry “Halal” foods on their shelves.

I am, however, still convinced that such prejudice-laden and xenophobic comments come from a minority of Austrians and that the majority of Austrian citizens are more clear thinking and more tolerant.

This is the fervently expressed hope of 

Bertstravels