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Food

Ramadan Recipes Bring Out the Trolls in France

French recipe site Marmiton got into the season's spirit by posting a series of recipes for the estimated 1.6 billion Muslims on the planet. But it perhaps unsurprising that those recipes brought out hundreds of Islamophobic trolls.
Photo via Flickr user vipez

Roughly one quarter of the world's population is currently in the thick of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting and religious reflection. After forgoing food and drink during the day, Muslims then break their fasts, often with celebratory dishes.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, French recipe site Marmiton got into the season's spirit by posting a series of recipes for the estimated 1.6 billion Muslims on the planet. But considering the cesspool of hate that continuously powers the internet, it was even less surprising when those recipes brought out hundreds of Islamophobic trolls.

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As of yesterday, the site had racked up nearly 1,500 comments pertaining to the Ramadan recipes.

The site included recipes for chicken tagines, Moroccan pastilla, Algerian lamb with couscous, and even doro wat. As varied and delicious as those dishes are, they couldn't convince some xenophobic readers from feeling the need to point out that they don't want the French recipe sites from acknowledging other food cultures.

Should we be calling it creeping sharia in our kitchens? (Some of those angry commenters surely will, but without any irony.) But remember that Islam is currently the world's fastest-growing religion and is predicted to surpass Christianity in membership this century. Why shouldn't a site based in France—which has an estimated population of 4.7 million Muslims, one of the largest in the EU—cater to that demographic?

The fact that the site wished its readers "Happy Ramadan to all" was a particular sticking point. Facebook user Anne Piraux-Flabat wrote, "I am not Muslim and I don't count on becoming one."

Another reader pointed out his love for "cassoulet, sauerkraut, pork cutlets, ham and saucisson … and naked breasts on the beach," a porcine middle finger to Islam's dietary laws.

Just imagine the horror if Marmiton had posted recipes for a Passover seder.

Marmiton's cofounder, Christophe Duhamel, said that he was "deeply saddened" by the negative reaction.

"We are a cooking site. It's the only subject that interests us and it's the only subject we talk about," he told the AFP, perhaps forgetting that food is never not intertwined with politics. "For 16 years of our existence, we have taken all major festivals, religious or not, as opportunities to discover new recipes … Our religion is sharing, discovery, openness—in short, everything that is integral to cuisine."

Some readers apparently thought that their own beliefs—namely atheism—should trump the pernicious prevalence of organized religion. This one claims, "I am agnostic, I should not have to suffer the 'beliefs' of others":

@Marmiton_org @TerreHappy22 changez de formule. Je suis agnostique j'ai pas à subir les "croyances" des autres. La france recule de 100 ans

— ian (@shitypolitic) June 23, 2015

But at least Marmiton itself isn't caving to pressure from its less-than-happy readers:

@shitypolitic @TerreHappy22 Ramadan ou non, don't feed the troll. Bonne journée à vous pic.twitter.com/KHjD8SNqP9

— Marmiton.org (@Marmiton_org) June 23, 2015