A chicken restaurant found itself on the wrong side of the road as angry protestors demonstrated against its position on same-sex marriage.
The only thing is, this wasn’t Chick-fil-A, it was the Canadian eatery Chick-Felay—and its Muslim owner has never gotten into the marriage wars.
With four locations in Toronto—where marriage equality is already law—Chick-Felay founder and CEO Nabeel Khan says he and his staff were at a loss as to why people were picketing. ”The servers were like, ‘What’s going on?” says Khan. ”I didn’t have any idea what they were talking about. I was selling chicken.”
Really, you had no idea—even though the whole controversy dominated the news cycle in North America for nearly a week? Next you’ll say it’s just a coincidence your restaurant has practically the same name as Dan Cathy’s biblically-run business.
Now if you excuse us, we’re going to get a Big Mick at McDowell’s
stoopid louie
I may be stoopid but . . . this apparently is what happens when “protesters” who are part of a “movement” have absolutely no idea what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. They just know that it gets them noticed and it victimizes innocent bystanders, which is what they want to achieve. March on, you hyper-intellectual gay-marriage soldiers, and show the world more examples of how the gay community behaves.
Neo
Here in the UK, we have baying mobs who attack Pediatricians offices because stupid people who read the gutter press do not know the difference between child molesters and workers in the medical business.
Sad that there are a few in the LGBT who fall into the same mentality, but the odds are in every movement there are some ridiculously stupid people in it. Still, it was only one place and no harm was done.
university_dude
“Really, you had no idea—even though the whole controversy dominated the news cycle in North America for nearly a week?”
I don’t think that’s a fair assumption. Canada gets a lot of american news exposure, however there are lot of Canadian news sources that wouldn’t have covered this
Spike
Queerty continues to beat the Chik-fil-a controversy drum while Coors ads appear prominently on the main page.
The hypocrisy is apparent.
MikeE
@university_dude: don’t be too harsh on Queerty.. after all, if you watched American TV’s Olympic coverage, you’d have thought that there was the U.S. team.. and some random people brought in to compete against them. Barely any coverage of ANY sports events that included teams or athletes other than Americans. Embarrassing.
@Queerty:
As for the Chick-fil-A thing “dominating the news cycle in North America” … ummm, maybe in the U.S., yeah, but trust me, it barely got covered in Canada where we honestly don’t give a fu** about your right-wing dipshi*s.. as long as they don’t try to enter our country.
John McLaren
Canadian Press reported that not ONE pro-traditonal marriage (anti-s-s marriage) supporter showed up at any of the outlets. Perhaps even radical, evangelical Canadian Christians understand that in Canada (where gay marriage has been legal from coast to coast for seven years) that it is here to stay and protected by Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
José
I live in south Texas and I don’t remember seeing the chick fil a controversy from Mexican networks either. So it was only in the USA and via international podcasts from Canada and elsewhere. It’s a bit funny that this happened. 🙂
B
QUEERTY: “Chick-Felay founder and CEO Nabeel Khan says he and his staff were at a loss as to why people were picketing. ”The servers were like, ‘What’s going on?” says Khan. ”I didn’t have any idea what they were talking about. I was selling chicken.”
“Really, you had no idea—even though the whole controversy dominated the news cycle in North America for nearly a week?”
—- it could be true. Aside from the story possibly not dominating the news cycle in Toronto as Jose pointed out above, people who own and run restaurants often put in very long hours in an effort to maintain a positive cash flow. Possibly by the time he got home, he was too tired to pay attention to the news.
DouggSeven
As a Torontonian, it’s not surprising the owner has no clue about the Chic-Fil-A controversy. They are so separated from the general society it’s ridiculous. They read their own newspapers, only socialize with other muslims, and refuse to assimilate into our society. It is actually frowned upon and their friends/family would ostracize them if they did so. There was case recently where a muslim family killed their own daughter because she wanted to live her life outside her community. The mother and father performed what is called an honor killing. While it may seem I’m talking crazy and off topic, I’m merely relating that this restaurant was oblivious to the case because they do not follow our press, and are frowned upon doing so.
Tom
@university_dude: your right i live in canada and i never heard of the restaurant Chick-fil-A in my life until i started visiting this website. Canada does get some news stations from the US but only some which are usually just small local news stations. Also many Canadians never watch american news because i mean why would we really care?? I have not seen any coverage of Chick-fil-A yet on any channel here because it is only big in america, in Canada marriage equality is a law that is nation wide and if a fast food place ever went against it they would probably be legally forced to drop it due to the fact that anything homophobic is illegal in Canada, I hope the US catches up to us soon
Jeremy
I think your assertion that the Chick-fil-a news dominated the north American news is frankly stupid, as a Canadian from Toronto, who now lives in California, I doubt that that story made much of a dent in Canada. Enough that protesters who like to hop in bandwagons would pay attention but not enough for everyone to take notice or even remember it after. Contrary to what Americans believe, the rest ofthe world neither knows about or cares what goes on at every moment in this country. Particularly restaurants who sell greasy chicken who are against marriage equality.
Triple S
@DouggSeven: I know. That goddamn religion and culture sends them backwards. As time goes on they will be animalistic compared to the rest of the world. Complete psychos with a pathetic arrogance that pisses me right off.
MikeE
@Triple S: You talking about American right-wing Christians?
Coop
@Tom–well said
@MikeE — I know, I thought is was renamed the Phelps Games
@university_dude– not every one is fascinated by every aspect of US news as it is to internal, there is an entire world out there which is never discussed on US TV, proven again by the coverage of the Olympics and the NBC. I doubt highly that any American news station discussed the hangings of the Iranian boys, killed for being gay.
freddie
Umm, yes, Queerty, it is a complete coincidence.