Halal supermarket in Paris told to sell pork and alcohol or face closure
'We don't want any area that is only Muslim or any area where there are no Muslims'
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Your support makes all the difference.A halal supermarket in Paris has been ordered by local authorities to sell pork and alcohol or face closure.
The Good Price mini-market in Colombes has not followed the conditions of its lease, which states the shop must act as a "general food store", the local authority has said.
It argues that members of the local community are not being served properly if the shop does not sell pork or alcohol products.
“The mayor of Colombes, Nicole Goueta, went there herself and asked the owner to diversify the range of products by adding alcohol and non-halal meats,” the mayor’s chief of staff, Jerome Besnard, told The Telegraph.
The halal supermarket replaced another small supermarket on the site last year and Mr Besnard said older residents had complained they were no longer able to buy the full range of products once available.
"We want a social mix," Mr Besnard added. "We don't want any area that is only Muslim or any area where there are no Muslims."
He said the town would have reacted in the same way had a kosher supermarket opened on the site.
"It's business," Soulemane Yalcin, the manager of Good Price, told Le Parisien. “I look around me and I target what I see.
"The lease states ‘general food store and related activities’ – but it all depends on how you interpret ‘related activities’."
The authority is taking legal action to revoke the shop's lease, which runs until 2019.
The case will be heard in October.
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