Sharjah Municipality backs boycott

Sharjah: The Sharjah Municipal Council has become the first official organisation to approve the boycott of Danish products by major retailers in the UAE.

In a short press release sent to newspapers yesterday, the council praised the Sharjah Cooperative Society for pulling out all Danish products from its shelves. "We thank the society for its stand against the character slur on the Prophet," it said.

A source at Sharjah Coop said products imported from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which have joint venture links with Denmark, are also being pulled out. "Our own Coop Milk is being removed," he said.

Meanwhile, the Union Cooperative Society of Dubai has identified 37 items from Denmark which it has withdrawn from the stores, said Ebrahim Al Baha, operations manager. "The number of items being removed is growing daily," he said.

He said an apology to Saudi Arabia alone was not enough. "It should be to all Muslims," he said, commenting on the apology by the editor of Jyllands-Posten, the paper that published the blasphemous cartoons.

The boycott has so far been voluntary. The Consumers Cooperative Union has put the retail might of its 40 branches throughout the UAE behind it to force an apology from the Danish and Norwegian Governments. The cartoons depicting the Prophet as a terrorist were also published by the Norwegian Magazinet.

A senior spokesperson from Spinneys said it too has initiated the boycott at all its 16 branches.

"The process started yesterday," she said, adding that the boycott is voluntary.

Muslim customers are pushing stores selling Danish products to remove them, said a source at the Sharjah Cooperative. Yousuf Al Zarani, a shopper at the Al Khan branch of the Sharjah Coop, said the boycott was the only way people here can respond to the ridiculing of their religion.

Sameh Ashri, another shopper, said there are things more important than trade and commerce, when asked whether the boycott would affect business. Some people are going from store to store with leaflets listing 26 Danish and Norwegian items asking them to be pulled out.

Some of the Danish products such as butter, cheese and frozen chicken were best sellers in this market before the boycott.