Danish court allows chefs not to taste dishes they prepare
As Novye Izvestia writes, the event that forced the educational institution to fork out occurred in 2010. Then the young cook was suspended from classes, and she in turn filed a lawsuit for "religious discrimination." As compensation, she demanded 75,000 kroner. The Danish Themis considered this case for five years, passing it higher and higher up the steps of the legal system, until this seemingly everyday story landed on the table of the high priests of justice.
The verdict in favor of the plaintiff, albeit with reduced compensation, became a holiday for the Muslim community in the homeland of Hamlet and a black day for zealots of liberal values. "The judges acknowledged that we no longer live in a secularized society, democratic values are subordinated to religious views," the newspaper Det korta netavisen commented bitterly on the court verdict.
The decision in the Menal Mustafa case drew a line under the debates that had been going on for several years about whether immigrants, the lion's share of whom come from Islamic countries, should comply with the requirements adopted in the host country. Pork became a kind of catalyst for this conflict.
Denmark is a real "pig" kingdom of Europe. For 5.5 million Danes, there are 27 million "oinkers", i.e., almost five piggies per person. This is the highest ratio in the world. The sale of pork and pork products abroad is one of Denmark's main export items. Therefore, it is no coincidence that this animal is revered in the northern kingdom just like the panda in China or the cow in India.
The first open "blow against the national animal" was delivered several years ago by Muslim Ikram Korkmaz, who was studying to become a cook's apprentice at the college of restaurant and hotel management in the town of Valby. He stated that the college management forced him to leave the educational institution because his faith forbids him to eat pork and wine, as the program requires. "I can cook pork dishes, I don't have to taste it myself," Korkmaz argued in his favor.
The storm that originated in the kitchen of the cooking school burst out into the country, reaching the central media and even the parliament hall. MP from the left-wing Red-Green coalition, Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen, stated that the behavior of the college management was unacceptable. In her opinion, the intervention of the Minister of Education was required. After all, if the "retrogrades" are not stopped, then people with allergies to dairy products could also get a "ban on the profession."
"Of course, it is strange if a cook does not taste the food he prepares himself, but the law does not prohibit a person from refusing a particular product," echoed the colleague, MP from the Danish People's Party, Peter Skaarup.
The director of the cooking school, Søren Kylvein Christiansen, under pressure from politicians, backed down, stating that he was misunderstood and that no student was expelled. "We simply made it clear to Ikram that it would be difficult for him to find a place for work experience, without which it is impossible to obtain a diploma. After all, we usually send students to nursing homes, large kitchens and hospitals, where pork is always on the menu. On our website, by the way, there is a recommendation for students of Muslim or Jewish faith. We advise them to put the meat in their mouth, taste it, and then spit it out without swallowing," the director justified himself in the local press.
The side of the college management was also taken by the well-known Muslim chef in Denmark, Wassim Hallal, who has his own cooking show on television: "I find it hard to understand a future chef who does not taste what he makes. In my own restaurant, that is impossible. I have a vegetarian chef, but that girl must know the taste of all dishes, both vegetable and meat. I myself, for example, do not eat pork, I cannot stand pâtés, but I always put them in my mouth and then spit them out."
The guardians of the country's "national values" who joined the debate believe that Muslims have gone too far in their demands, undermining the very foundations of Danish civilization with their "pork boycott." In the army, educational institutions and hospitals, Muslims have the right to demand dishes not containing the meat of the "unclean animal", but that is not enough for them, as critics of "Ikram Korkmaz's attack on society" assured.
As confirmation of the truth of their words, they quoted excerpts from an article about pork posted on the Danish website "Islamic Information." It said that peoples who eat pork are feeble-minded, depraved, dishonest, and infected with many infections, since the molecules of the meat of the "unclean animal" enter the brains of people who eat it and make "pork-eaters" perverted.
If Ikram Korkmaz limited himself to protests in the media, his co-religionist turned to Themis, wanting the value judgments of both sides of the "pork conflict" to take the form of law. Now the deed is done. Thousands of Danish institutions, both private and public, in one way or another related to the "national animal," are urgently reviewing their internal rules, changing them so as not to offend the religious feelings of "new Danes."