There has been a bit of a stir in France over the past couple of days regarding the news that schools in areas where the National Front party has political leadership will no longer offer children a halal meat alternative to pork.
In all honesty I was more surprised that some parents are actually complaining about this decision than anything else. When I was at school the last thing my parents would have expected was for the school to offer me a halal meat alternative - eating a vegetarian lunch was simply never an issue for me. As far as I can remember, I, like most of the non-Muslim children, had a packed lunch everyday, and on days I was allowed to eat a hot meal at school I was more than happy with chip-Fridays.
Foreigners in any country should have a natural acceptance that they are foreign and should not expect, or demand, that the country that they are living in caters to their lifestyle. When Muslims choose to live in any country but their own they must learn to adapt their own lives and never expect others to adapt to theirs.
I feel as though some Muslims are forgetting that they are foreigners in the Western countries they are living in, so much so that they forget that the native people have their own cultures and ways that they wish to preserve. This does not mean they are racist, it just means they don't want to see their culture slipping away, diluted or replaced by something foreign.
I am very grateful when I see halal shops or mosques in the UK, and I'm happy that I am allowed to work with a headscarf on but by no means do I except these things to available without question or as part of some 'right' that I have in this country. We must remember that we are, and always will be, foreign and if you do not like the laws of a land, nobody is forcing you to live there.
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