boycott updates

It is in the Middle East that the backlash to the Danish cartoons was felt the most. Strong reactions to the cartoons came through in the boycott of Danish goods across the Islamic world, plenty of fiery articles in the newspapers and lots of propaganda e-mails and messages doing the rounds and government level statements calling for condemnation and apologies. The clerics of course had a field day.
As an interested but objective third party, I was witness to the entire sequence of events in a part of the world that was particularly affected by the entire controversy. When the controversy ‘came’ to the Middle East in the middle of January, I could see that the first reaction was incredulous disbelief and a feeling of genuine hurt in many of my Muslim friends. Incredulity because they could not believe that anyone would actually go out of the way to publish cartoons insulting the prophet of Islam and without provocation at that, and hurt because they are genuinely in awe of their prophet and it hurt them that someone has insulted such a figure of veneration for a billion + people. The initial response was instinctive and reactionary and I could feel an undercurrent of bitterness brewing. SMS’s and e-mails were sent around calling for the boycott of Danish goods, protest meetings were organized and for a few days, the newspapers were full of commentary on this issue. While the most virulent reactions came from the clerics and fundamentalists, the average Muslim was also riled enough to join in the general expression of anger and disgust towards the west. Already, Muslims all over the world feel like they are targeted, be it in Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sydney, Chechnya or the Western world in general. This controversy further reinforced the general feeling of apathy and disrespectfulness of the west and a lack of understanding of the ‘Islamic’ world. Around this time, I saw stickers on cars which went to the tune of, ‘each western product bought is a bullet through a Muslim’s heart’. Fortunately, this hysteria did not last long and saner messages soon replaced the more fundamentalist ones...messages like ‘know more about the beloved prophet Mohammed PBUH (this, followed by the URL of a website which provided details on Prophet Mohammed’s life)’.
The boycott of Danish products started in Saudi between the week of 20th and 27th of Jan. By the 10th of Feb, the boycott was almost complete and fully effective across the trade through the Middle East. Most shops had put up notices that they were not stocking any Danish products. Arlafoods (Dairy), Emborg (Frozen Foods), Lego (Toys), K.D.D. (Dairy), SADAFCO (Dairy) were the companies primarily hit by the boycott. Of these, Arlafoods, with its brands Puck (Processed Cheese, Labneh, Dairy Creams), Lurpak (Butter), Three Cows (Processed Cheese) and Power Cow (Processed Cheese) was the biggest hit, simply because it dominated the categories where it was present and it was the most recognizably Danish company. Companies like K.D.D. and SADAFCO were unfortunate because people associated them with Danish products, whereas their products had nothing to do with Denmark. K.D.D. and SADAFCO did at one time source material from Denmark but this was a very long time ago. Companies like Nestle (particularly Nido in baby food) and New Zealand Milk (Anchor in baby food) were even more unfortunate because they were targeted in the boycott even though they had nothing at all to do with Denmark.
There were calls for an apology from the Danish government and Jyllands Posten. After their initial intransigence, the Danish government came out with statements regretting the reaction that the cartoons had caused saying that they were meant as experimentation in free speech and not as an insult to Muslims (they didn’t apologize, which I think was brave of them). Jyllands Posten made similar placatory noises. Though never directly apologizing, they regretted that they had caused offence, which was never their intention. The Danish companies in the Middle East had more pressing economic concerns and they went all out in distancing themselves from the cartoons and generally said all the right things. For a time, Arlafoods considered going in for an all out media campaign expressing their respect for Islam and the Islamic world. However, their media agency told them not to, and very wisely so, I think. Any media exposure would have only provoked the community more. They chose eventually to lie low and ride out the storm; in my opinion, the best course of action...sometimes no action is the best action.
No government in the Middle East has officially called for a ban of Danish products. So after some of the hysteria had died down, people started wondering who would take the first step in calling off the ban. Eventually, we realized that the only ones who could call for the boycott to be lifted were the Saudi clerics at the Friday prayers. After all, it was at the Friday prayers that people were initially urged to boycott Danish goods. Al Othaim retailers in Saudi were the first to implement the boycott and the other retailers followed soon. Arla realized that the only way to get back onto the shelves was to mollify the clerical community and get Al Othaim to start stocking Arla products.
Most retailers in UAE have started stocking Danish goods now. There have been peaceful protests to this but on the whole, Danish goods have been moving off the shelves pretty quickly (though not as quickly as before). Saudi is posing much more of a challenge. Though some retailers have started stocking a limited assortment of Danish goods, there is still quite a lot of resentment there and people are not buying Danish products.
It seems (in UAE at least) that the one company that has benefited from the boycott is ‘Al Marai’, a local Dairy company. Its sales have boomed over the past couple of months and most of the share that Arla has lost has been taken over by Marai.