Muslim leader urges Indonesians to boycott Starbucks over LGBT stand

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FILE PHOTO: An employee poses with a cup of water at a Starbucks coffeehouse in Austin, Texas, U.S., February 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Khursheed/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An employee poses with a cup of water at a Starbucks coffeehouse in Austin, Texas, U.S., February 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Khursheed/File Photo

A leader of Indonesia’s second-largest Muslim organization has called for a boycott of Starbucks (SBUX.O), saying that the international coffee chain’s pro-gay stand risks ruining the “religious and cultured” core of the Southeast Asian nation.

With the exception of the ultra-conservative Aceh province, homosexuality is legal in Indonesia. But police raids on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have risen in the world’s most populous Muslim country.

Anwar Abbas of Muhammadiyah, an organization that has around 30 million members, said the government should revoke Starbucks’ operating license as the company’s support for the LGBT community is “not in line” with the nation’s ideology.

“If Starbucks only does business, then fine. But don’t bring ideology here,” Abbas told Reuters by phone on Saturday.

PT Sari Coffee Indonesia, which holds the license to run the Starbucks chain, is a legal entity that “always obeys the prevailing regulations and appreciates the cultural values in Indonesia”, an executive at its parent company said.

“We also value the religious background of our customers and employees,” Fetty Kwartati, a director at PT MAP Boga Adiperkasa Tbk (MAPB.JK), said in a text message.

Indonesia’s reputation for tolerance and pluralism is already under scrutiny after Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic-Chinese Christian, was sentenced in May to two years in prison for blasphemy in a trial that came after mass Islamist-led rallies last year.

Asked why he had taken a stand against Starbucks, Abbas said he was informed in a chat group about a pro-LGBT comment made by the company’s senior executive, Howard Schultz.

Schultz is now chairman of Starbucks after stepping down from his previous role as chief executive.

Forbes reported that when a Starbucks shareholder complained in 2013 that the company had lost customers because of its support for gay marriage, Schultz said it embraces diversity and that “not every decision is an economic decision”.

“If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it’s a free country. You can sell your shares in Starbucks and buy shares in another company,” Schultz was reported as saying at that time.

A video of the comment was also posted on YouTube.

Starbucks customer Annisa Meidiana, who is a Muslim, said she would not stop buying coffee there because of the call for the boycott.

“Islam condemns LGBT. It’s a sin,” the 22-year-old university student said outside Jakarta. “But it doesn’t matter to me. For me, being an LGBT is a human right.”

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4 responses to “Muslim leader urges Indonesians to boycott Starbucks over LGBT stand”

  1. Niemals Avatar
    Niemals

    When a leader of Indonesia’s second largest Muslim organization has demanded a boycott of Starbucks (SBUX.O), it is politically correct to say that the international coffee chain’s pro-gay position risks destroying the “religious and cultured” core of the South-East Asian nation .

    Why is it politically incorrect to say that the invasion of Muslim newcomers in the EU can destroy the core of the European nation?

    The Hagia Sophia – Warning signals for Europeans:
    Today museum, tomorrow mosque?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/509eed20c2c290d4513d76d31d7d791dce3070523bb0b153c630f34b89ba5bce.jpg
    Christliche Spuren: Wandbilder in der Hagia Sophia
    In fact, Turkish nationalist groups have long been trying to turn the museum into a mosque, despite the changing history of the building. In 537, it had consecrated Justinian, the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. For almost a thousand years, it served as a Christian church until Mehmet II conquered the then Constantinople in 1453 and transformed the Hagia Sophia – the “holy wisdom” into a mosque. He is said to have spoken the first Islamic prayer. In the course of time four minarets were built, the dome grew to a height of 56 meters.

  2. pro-gay stand may be not good, but if pro-islam stand is better?
    is f”cking of brain better than f’cking of ass?

  3. Danny Farah Avatar
    Danny Farah

    As much as I am anti gay and lgbt but because of starbucks support of them angered indonesians gov’t. but blowing up the oldest mosque in the world and many other mosques by Daesh is okay with them. You are a stupid idiot and racist and sub-humans..

  4. Niemals Avatar
    Niemals

    Why do I not raise my eyebrow when I read about the “High personal protection for founder of the liberal mosque” in the Berliner Stadtteil Moabit?
    As I illuminated earlier about the lawyer Seyran Ates that founded a liberal mosque in Berlin, I was very doubtful that it will remain free from Islamist provocations.
    My concerns have been confirmed, you can’t trust Islam simply because they are not interested in reforms as the Christians preformed.
    The “Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Moschee” (mosque) stands for a secular Islam and thus borders on the Turkish-Islamic mosque association Ditib, which is criticized for its proximity to the Turkish state.

    In mid-June, lawyer Seyran Ates founded a liberal mosque in Berlin. Since then she has received dozens of death threats.
    The police are therefore reinforcing the protection measures for the 54-year-old.
    http://disq.us/p/1ju37sy

    Ates was already victim of an assassination attempt in West Berlin in 1984 because of her commitment to immigrant women.
    She suffered a life-threatening injury.
    That is the way of Islam, the peaceful religion…..

    Despite that Muslim claiming that they
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bbff29d013fbe12099b5072b18e16109009de9df4b785525c684b9ef8c8b514d.jpg
    can coexist, they do everything to stay as Islam was since it was created.

    Is it a Turkish influence that contributed to the death threats?
    The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has pressed for a closure of the liberal mosque.
    According to Ates, she has now received about 100 death threats, especially on the social media.

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