Houston : A Pakistani-American Muslim owner, who put up anti-Hindu signs at a popular US eatery, has been forced to sell the franchise amid furore over the controversial posters that upset thousands of Indian-Americans. Mohammad Dar, 65, agreed to give up his business in Kemah, Texas, Dairy Queen said.
“We are pleased to announce that as of Wednesday, March 30th, the DQ location in Kemah, Texas is now under new ownership and all interior and exterior signs posted by the former franchisee were immediately removed from that location,” said Dean A Peters, Associate Vice President of Communications of American Dairy Queen Corporation headquartered in Minneapolis.
For the past six months, Dar’s Dairy Queen restaurant posted signs bashing Hinduism as a force of racism. Some of the messages, displayed on tall panels, mentioned Hinduism specifically and accused it of being based on racism.
Dar taped more messages near the register, on the drive- through window and placed a large sign outside of the restaurant in the parking lot. The owner told local media that he planned to leave because of a new, expensive “corporate mandate”.
The Hindus of Greater Houston, Hindu American Foundation and Diversity USA, welcomed a change in ownership at the Dairy Queen eatery.
“After speaking with Dairy Queen’s spokesperson, we applaud Dairy Queen for taking action to move up the timing of the sale of this location in Kemah to another franchisee owner in order to have these anti-Hindu signs removed swiftly,” the statement said.
“We also urge Dairy Queen to incorporate policies and procedures in their franchisee agreement to prevent such a situation from happening again,” it said. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard told all protesting Hindu organisations including Jagan Kaul of Diversity USA, a think- tank on minority issues, in a message that “your protest efforts have paid high dividends in causing Dairy Queen to force the owner to sell his franchise”.
Source : IBN Live
Muslim Dairy Queen owner installs signs comparing Hindus to monkeys
The Hindu community is calling on a Muslim Dairy Queen franchise owner to take down signs from his Houston-area business that compare Hindus to monkeys.
Mohammad Dar, a 65-year-old Muslim and U.S. citizen from Pakistan, claims he is not prejudiced for installing the signs — instead saying Hindus are the “racists,” mySA.com reported.
Dar told the website that he decided to post the displays at his business after “researching” Hinduism — the third-largest religion in the world — for 14 years. He said the signs at his Kemah, Texas, Dairy Queen seek to showcase the wrongs of certain religions, specifically Hinduism, acccording to the website.
One sign reportedly compared Hinduism to “monkeyism (sic).”
“Hindus don’t follow any limit or law, they follow desires like an animal – that is the foundation of Hinduism,” Dar told mySA.com. “Monkeys don’t plan anything, they just do what they desire, but humans follow the limit and law.”
“It’s nothing personal, it’s educational,” he reportedly added. “I’m really making people mad, but what I’m doing is communicating and inviting them to communicate […] they think I am attacking their religion, but I am not.”
In a statement to mySA.com, Dairy Queen’s corporate office called the installment of the signs an “unfortunate action” and said they are “not representative of our iconic family brand.”
“We do not condone this behavior,” company officials told the website.”
Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, is calling for International Dairy Queen Inc. to issue an apology on the matter.
“Posters reportedly displayed at its Kemah store in Texas were highly inappropriate and trivialized the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a highly philosophical thought,” Zed said in the release.
He said the company “should have shown some responsibility and already taken action regarding these signs posted at the Kemah location reportedly for many months.”
Hindus have started petition against a display board mocking Hindu Dharma !
Source : Fox News
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