DUBAI, February 21, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) The sales of Mecca Cola, an Arab type of cola, have been reportedly surging since the furor sparked by the publication of cartoons lampooning Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) by several European newspapers.
"Growth came with these Danish caricatures. It's crazy but our sales multiplied by three," Taoufik Mathlouthi, the chairman of the UAE-based Mecca Cola, told Reuters on Monday, February 21.
He said the average monthly demand in Malaysia, a key market, was 500,000 cans a month last year.
According to Mathlouthi, distributors in Malaysia were demanding 1.5 million cans a month, a trend, he said, was followed in Algeria, Yemen and France.
He declined to give specific figures and there was no way to independently verify the reported surge.
Mecca Cole was established in 2002 by Mathlouthi, a French citizen of Tunisian descent, as an Arab answer to America's coca cola.
Political Conscience
Mathlouthi said Western policies hostile to Muslims have been instrumental in turning Muslims away from products seen as Western.
"The Muslim population has started getting a political conscience," he told Reuters.
The twelve cartoons, first published in September by Denmark's mass circulation daily Jyllands-Posten, triggering an outcry across the Muslim world and calls to boycott Danish products.
Danish-Swedish dairy company Arla Foods, one of Europe’s largest dairy producers, said its sales in the Middle East had ground to a halt after products were removed from shelves of major supermarkets.
The company's products were removed from shelves of major supermarkets in many Gulf countries.
Branches of French hypermarket Carrefour in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have also stopped selling Danish goods.
