Days after Chennai police arrested the owner of a pure vegetarian Bakery for putting out cautionary information stating that it employed no Muslims to prepare food items, it appears the owners of the bakery has permanently shut their shop. This development comes days after the viral image garnered widespread social media outrage.
According to Google business, Jain Bakeries and Confectioneries, a bakery in the T Nagar, Chennai, which has been at the receiving end of the hate across the social media has been permanently closed. The owners of the bakery had put out an advertisement on WhatsApp pointing out that all their orders are “made by Jains” and no Muslim staff were engaged for the purpose, following which the owner was arrested by the Chennai police.
Interestingly, the option of displaying “permanently closed” on Google My Business can only be done by any person who has access to the particular account linked to the specific establishment. Usually, the promoter or the owner of the establishment will be the admin of the page and can have access to his Google My Business account, and he/she alone can control the information his/her account puts out on public domain.
With reference to the “permanently closed” being displayed on the Google Business card of Jain Bakeries and Confectionaries, it can only be enabled by owners of the bakers and not by any third-party indicating that the promoters themselves have decided to shut down the establishment out of the fear after they were hounded and abused for putting out cautionary information stating that it employed no Muslims to prepare food items amidst coronavirus scare.
Incidentally, most of the establishments, especially restaurants and other eateries, have also shut shops due to lockdown restrictions. However, most of the establishments which are closed due to lockdown, only display either ‘temporarily closed’ or ‘closed’ on their Google My Business platforms instead of ‘permanently closed’.
Just Dosa, a popular Dosa point in Bengaluru, has closed its operations due to coronavirus and only hopes to operate once the lockdown is lifted. The Google My Business shows that the establishment is ‘closed’ and not ‘permanently closed’.
OpIndia spoke to few entrepreneurs using Google to promote their business, who reiterated that the change in the status of operations by an enterprise can only be changed by the admin of the page and no single third party can alter it, thus confirming that the Google My Business page of the Jain Bakeries and Confectionaries was altered by the promoters itself following the threats and abuse by the social media users over their discretion to employ Muslims in their establishment.
One of the entrepreneurs, who chose to be anonymous, said that a large number of users spamming their content and mass reporting could also act as a possible chance of Google shutting their profile and not the establishment itself. However, Google My Business of Jain Bakeries and Confectionaries has limited engagement and social media users spamming their google reviews can also be ruled out.
OpIndia tried to reach out to the owner of the Jain Bakeries and Confectioneries, but could not get through as their number appeared out of service. We shall update the report once we hear back from them.
Police arrests Chennai baker
On Sunday, the Chennai police arrested an owner of a pure vegetarian Bakery after he had put out an advertisement stating that it employed no Muslims to prepare food items. The owner of Jain Bakeries and Confectioneries in Chennai’s T Nagar had put out a cautionary message on WhatsApp pointing out that all their orders are “made by Jains” and no Muslim staff were engaged for the purpose.
The incident comes close on heels of multiple incidents where Muslims have deliberately indulged in spitting on food. Many videos exposing Muslim vegetable and fruit-sellers spitting on their produce, presumably to spread coronavirus had gone viral recently.
Just a few days back, an equally appalling incident has come to light from a bakery in Maharashtra’s Amravati. The viral video is from a bakery in the Amravati district of Maharashtra where an individual, Abdul Nazim Sheikh Mahmood (29), was seen slicing the loaves of bread and spitting on them.
Earlier in March, a video of a certain Sheru Miyan, licking the fruits which he displays in a cart for sale went viral on social media. In the video, the fruit vendor in Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, is seen arranging a variety of fruits on his cart, which he parks in the middle of a marketplace.
Halal is mainstream
It may be noted that nowadays many food products are label as Halal certified, which means not only that the products are manufactured according to Islamic practices, but many times it also means that only Muslims are employed in the entire production and packaging chain of such Halal certified products. For example, the guidelines for preparing Halal certified meat make it abundantly clear that only Muslim employees are allowed to participate in the entire process at every stage from slaughtering to packaging, and if any non-Muslim is involved in the process, the product becomes Haram, or not allowed as per Islam.
