Church's Chicken Goes To The Dogs

There is an interesting lawsuit that is coming out of Maryland that is pitting, as Fenris would say, "Activist vs. Activist".

A black couple from Maryland had purchased a Church's Fried Chicken outlet. As they were investing in the outlet, a Bahrain group, Capital Investments Inc, bought up the Fried Chicken chain and immediately instituted Sharia law on their investments.

This meant that no longer would Church's Chicken be allowed to sell pork in any of its breakfast meals. Seeing as though pork is a main food, therefore the main money-maker in breakfast meals, the black couple that just bought a Church's Chicken franchise took a huge financial hit that they claim led to their bankruptcy.

But here's the kicker:

Marcus and Denise Beasley, who are black, claimed they were treated differently by the bank, now known as Atlanta-based Arcapita Inc., than non-black franchisees who were allowed to continue serving breakfast dishes containing pork after the chain was acquired by the bank in December 2004.

The couple did not benefit from the grandfather policy allowing the sale of pork even though their contract with the chain's former owners, AFC Enterprises Inc., to open a location in Baltimore/ Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport's new terminal predated the takeover and policy change, according to the suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

A *Grandfather policy* means that pre-existing owners of Church's Chicken franchises were allowed to sell pork, only new owners were barred from selling pork problems.

To add fuel to the fire, every owner that benefits from the Grandfather clause were white or non-black.

Here's my take on this: I agree with the Beasley's (the black couple) that what the Islamic consortium did was wrong, and they should pay for it. The consortium had an agreement with the Beasley's and only changed their agreement one week before the couple opened up shop. A contract was already in place. Also, the Beasley's were told right up until a week before they opened that they would receive *pork royalties*, just like all the other owners. However, that obviously changed when the Islamic group went to Sharia law.

I think the main issue that needs to be addressed is how this Islamic company is imposing their religious beliefs on private franchise owners. I mean, these Islamics went out of their way to buy ALL these Church's Chickens and then changed the rules and forced the owners of these establishments to submit to their religious beliefs or else face the consequences of being destroyed financially.

Am I way off on this?