Last but not least: Migros insults Muslims
devout Muslims feel offended by Migros. This is because the oriental bath at a Migros fitness center in Zurich is adorned with calligraphy in Arabic script. Translated, it reads: «Allah is beautiful; He loves beauty.»
No problem in itself, the non-Muslim will think. On the contrary, this lettering is, after all, a compliment to Allah, and Muslims should feel flattered that a Western company like Migros decorates the wall of a bath with these words. Wrong thinking: because women and men spend time together in the hammam and are only covered with a cloth, devout Muslims find the lettering in this place offensive, as the Sonntagszeitung knows. However, as devout Muslims would never dream of entering such a mixed bathroom, the lettering would not actually be a problem. And it wasn't - until Migros recently launched an advertising campaign and the photograph of the "Allah" calligraphy in the bathroom appeared in the free newspaper 20 Minuten. Since then, there has been uproar. Members and sympathizers have been contacting the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS), the largest association of devout Muslims in Switzerland, for days. They want to know whether the word "Allah" in a hamam with half-naked people is "halal", i.e. in accordance with the rules. IZRS spokesman Qaasim Illi has had the question clarified by Islamic scholars in Egypt and Kuwait. And now knows the answer: it would be worse to use the lettering used by Migros on the soles of shoes or in toilets, for example. These are clearly unclean places. Well, let's go along with that.
It's a little less bad at Haman, but definitely out of place. Migros, by the way, remains calm despite the hustle and bustle - the decorations stay where they are.
