Free Republic

  What are the long-term consequences of the Muhammad cartoon furor? I predict it is helping bring on not a clash of civilizations but their mutual pulling apart. This separation, which has been building for years, has dreadful implications.Signs of disengagement are all around.· Trade: Boycotts now exist in both directions. Even as the U.S. government sanctions Iranian products, Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his government will “revise and cancel economic contracts” with countries where newspapers published the cartoons. Several Muslim countries have suspended trade with Denmark, while Muslim-owned stores in Canada have removed Danish products. The Pakistani medical association...

JERUSALEM : Mecca Cola, the drink which prides itself on giving a share of its profits to "the children of Palestine", has gone on sale in parts of Israel for the first time, the Haaretz daily reported. Bottles featuring illustrations of Jerusalem's landmark Dome of the Rock now line the shelves in Arab Israeli towns although they are not being stocked in Jewish areas of the country. Mecca Cola's French founder Taufik Mathlouthi said that he wanted to "struggle against Zionism inside its home," but insisted he had no problem with Jews. "We don't have a problem with the Jews...

The promoters of "Mecca Cola," the Muslim world's answer to popular US soft drinks, are preparing to cash in on fierce anti-US sentiments in Pakistan. The Paris-based company is planning to launch its product here and has been inviting tenders from local distributors through newspaper advertisements. "We received over 1,000 initial enquiries within two days of the ad appearing," Mecca Cola's local representative Tahir Javed said Wednesday. A local business partner had been chosen, but Javed would not disclose the planned launch date. Mecca Cola advertised in local papers under the slogan with which its scored success among Europe's Muslims:...

While some people express anti-U.S. sentiment through terrorist attacks or noisy demonstrations, a Tunisian-born French businessman has created a soft-drink company whose aim is to protest America's foreign policy. Tawfiq Mathlouti launched his company, the Mecca Cola Beverage Company, last November in Paris. He touts his soft drink as an alternative to Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola and says it's primarily a "political product." To date, Mathlouti has sold 14 million 1.5-liter bottles in supermarkets and grocery stores in Europe, the Middle East and even some African nations, and he said he has orders for 600 million liters through the...

Mecca-Cola comes to Africa By Diadie Ba DAKAR (Reuters) - Sarr Elyse took a sip from a plastic cup. Like a practised wine taster, she swilled the dark liquid around in her mouth then swallowed. "I love Coca-Cola and this is not Coca-Cola," she said with a slight grimace. It certainly wasn't and that's the point of Mecca-Cola -- a soft drink named after Islam's holiest shrine and created to protest against U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Senegal is one of the first sub-Saharan African countries to put Mecca-Cola on the market, and it's an obvious choice. The...

Arab entrepreneur, Tawfiq Mathlouthi will launch his new product, Mecca Cola into the French market in November during the Ramadam season. Some 10 percent of profits earned will be dedicated to Palestinian charities aiding children, supporting education and preserving heritage. Inspired by Iran’s Zamzam Cola, Mathlouthi received the trademark for the beverage and subsequently developed relationships with French, Dutch and Belgian industrialists in order to develop a market for the new product. The Mecca Cola Foundation is a non-profit organization that donates 20 percent of its net profits to charitable causes. An additional 10 percent are directed to the Palestinian...