Edible Arrangements -- "A Must To Avoid"

Muslim Owners of Fruit Basket Company Fund HAMAS, Jihadist Extremism
By Debbie Schlussel

Now, that it’s the holiday season and a time of buying and giving Christmas and Chanukah gifts, a lot of people make the convenient choice of sending fruit baskets to their friends and professional associates.

If you do purchase a gift from Edible Arrangements, you are funding HAMAS abroad and Muslim community organizing, such as the group IMAN, the Inner City Muslim Action Network,in the U.S. Tariq Farid is the CEO of Edible Arrangements, which he started with his brother, Kamran Farid.

Not only are they devout Pakistani Muslims, but they are major donors and fundraisers for American mosques, Islamic schools, and similar enterprises in Pakistan.

Recent tax returns of their Farid Foundation, to which they and Edible Arrangements are major contributors, gives tens of thousands of dollars to extremist Islamic schools and mosques in America and to Islamic Relief, the HAMAS/Al-Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood “charity” which sends tens of millions of dollars to finance jihad around the world.

An Islamic Relief fundraiser I attended undercover featured young Muslim Arab kids simulating beheadings of Americans, Brits, and Israelis as the evening’s “entertainment” !

Islamic Relief’s chief official in Gaza was a HAMAS official with Bin Laden’s photo, swastikas, and a “G-d Bless Hitler” banner as his screensavers.

Islamic Relief’s registered agent in the U.S. is Kazbek Soobzokov, is the son of Nazi Waffen SS officer Tscherim Soobzokov and the lawyer for deported accused terrorist and Islamic cleric, Imam Wagdy Mohamed Ghoneim.

The Farids and their Farid Foundation are also major donors to IMAN, the Chicago-based group which organizes Muslims to impose their extremist values on America’s political process and in America’s inner cities. The other purpose of the group is to convert Blacks and other inner city residents to Islam and help those who’ve already converted remain Muslim.

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I was under the impression that Edible Arrangements was a small local company...but when I GOOGLED it - this is what I found:

Edible Arrangements:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edible Arrangements International, LLC

Type:  Private Company
Industry:  Food & Beverage
Founded:  Hamden, Connecticut, USA (1999)
Founder(s):  Tariq Farid Kamran Farid
Headquarters:  95 Barnes Road, Wallingford, Connecticut, USA 06492
Area served:  United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Italy, Turkey, Bahrain, India, Jordan and China.
Key people:  Tariq Farid, CEO Kamran Farid, COO
Products:  Bouquets and arrangements of sculpted fresh fruit, chocolate dipped fruit, fresh fruit smoothies, and fruit salad
Revenue:  $255 million (2010)
Net income:  $98 million
Employees:  70 (2009)
Website:  http://www.ediblearrangements.com/

Edible Arrangements International is a U.S.-based franchising business that specializes in fresh fruit arrangements, melding the concept of fruit baskets with design inspired by the floral business.[1] The company also sells a variety of specialty fruit gift items, such as gift boxes featuring premium chocolate dipped fruit, and fresh-fruit-to-go products.

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The company is headed by Tariq Farid, who partnered with his brother Kamran Farid to open the first Edible Arrangements store in Hamden, Connecticut in 1999.[1] After designing the computer systems, training manuals, production and profitability tracking and supply chain management process, they began franchising the concept in 2001. The first official franchise location opened in Waltham, Massachusetts.[2]

As of 2011, the business had grown to more than 1,100 stores serving locations in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. In March 2008 Edible Arrangements was reported to have annual revenues of $195 million.[3]

In 2009, Edible Arrangements announced the signing of master franchisee agreements in Rome, Italy, and Hong Kong. The Rome master franchise was purchased by VPF International Ltd, and the franchise for Hong Kong was purchaes by D.T. Hong Kong Ltd, which is owned by Sanja Dujic.[4] Additionally, in November 2009, an agreement was signed with brothers Kemal and Emre Aydin, who planned to develop 15 locations in Turkey.[5] Edible Arrangements ended 2009 with 74 new stores and franchise agreements for more than 85 locations in the U.S. and internationally, totaling the number of units to 940. The company’s U.S. growth in 2009 was concentrated in Texas and the Midwest with stores also opening in other locations including California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.[6] A total of 39 U.S. locations closed during the three-year period 2007–2009.[7]

In 2010 the company opened 84 new U.S. stores and nine international stores and signed commitments for 123 new locations.[8] Hiten Bajaj planned to open 20 new stores in India, with the Mumbai store serving as a model for the others.[9] Richmond, Virginia, businessman Raed Al-Mustafa planned to open six stores in Jordan.[10] In January 2011, Edible Arrangements announced its 1,000th franchise agreement.[11]

Rankings

With over 1100 stores in 14 countries around the world, Edible Arrangements has appeared on Entrepreneur magazine's list of Top Global Franchises for five consecutive years.[citation needed] It was ranked number 42 on the 2012 Entrepreneur Franchise 500. It also ranked first in category in the Franchise 500 in the years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

In January 2011, a Forbes magazine article entitled "Top 20 Franchises to Start" ranked Edible Arrangements as number nine.[7] As of 2011, the company has over 1,110 franchisees worldwide.

Franchisee lawsuit

In 2010, Edible Arrangements faced dissatisfaction from some of its franchisees. In January 2010, more than 270 franchisees presented Farid with individual letters expressing opposition to corporate policies and practices that they considered to be harmful to their individual franchised businesses. The franchisees formed an association known as "EA Independent Franchisees Association, LLC", or "EAIFA" and hired an attorney to represent them in possible litigation.[12] On September 20, 2010 the group filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of 170 franchisees, alleging that several changes the company made in its franchise agreements were unfair or violated contractual obligations to the franchisees.[13] Edible Arrangements International, responded to inquiries about the lawsuit by saying that they strongly disagreed with the accusations and would vigorously defend the complaint. The company subsequently initiated a motion in the courts to dismiss the case, but this attempt was denied by a District of Connecticut judge on July 19, 2011 and the franchisees were granted authority to pursue the case on all claims.

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I have  always thought that Edible Arrangements was a bit overpriced and over done for nothing more than cheese and fruit.  But there have been times I was tempted (but did not order) to send an arrangement to a friend or family member.

I am glad that I never did.  And I encourage you not to patronize this business.  No gift is worth the murder of children.

Happy Eid al-Adha But No Merry Christmas.

That is the attitude now taken by Best Buy Stores.

A scanned version of the Best Buy Black Friday ad on BestBuy.com wishes Muslims a happy Eid al-Adha, which falls on the extended Thanksgiving weekend.



Since the ad was posted, a message board on BestBuy.com has filled up with plenty of responses. Tuesday morning, a discussion of the ad on BestBuy.com had more than 100 responses. Some of those comments were supportive of the greeting and some called for a boycott of the retailer, including boldly racist remarks.

Here's a look at some of the posts on the BestBuy.com message board :

I worked part time at Best Buy two years ago and am shocked by this! The sad thing is that I think it will cost Best Buy a lot of business, and some MAJOR bad publicity which will hurt the employees who had nothing to do with the decision. What in the heck were you thinking Best Buy?????

-christmas_shopr

Happy Eid Al-Adha but no Merry Christmas? I assume your next advertisements will say Merry Christmas. Otherwise, I will no longer shop at Best Buy. I will shop at those businesses which support Christmas.

-joclaire

Thank you Best Buy for the Eid Greetings!! I plan to spend more money at BB. Thank you for being inclusive of various cultures.

-Peacepro123

Best Buy community supervisor Elizabeth responded to the comments with the following statement :

"Thanks for sharing your point of view regarding our recent ad, which included a wish for a “Happy Eid al-Adha”.

Best Buy’s customers and employees around the world represent a variety of faiths and denominations. We respect that diversity and choose to greet our customers and employees in ways that reflect their traditions.

We do use the word “holiday” in some of our advertising because it is meant to be inclusive to everyone. However, just as we have in the past, we will also reference specific holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in our weekly ads, store signage and other advertising vehicles.

We encourage our employees to interact with customers naturally and feel free to wish them a Merry Christmas if they are celebrating that holiday.
Thanks again for your feedback."

The full story is here.

I have never seen in recent years an advertisement from Best Buy that read Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukah. Oh no! We just get Happy Holidays!

But not if you are Muslim. There you must be accomidated at all cost. You might upset the Muslims if you don't wish them a Happy al-Adha or whatever the name is. After all our idiotic President told the world that the US is one of the most populist Muslim nations in the world with 0.5% of the US population or 2.25 million. But unlike Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists, Muslims will riot if you anger them. So you must never anger them.

If you expect to ever see Best Buy use the term: Merry Christmas don't hold your breath. But hold your money back and just don't shop there until they do. It is after all YOUR MONEY!

Flight 93 Blogburst: Ground broken for Terrorist memorial mosque

The desecration has begun. A ground-breaking ceremony was held at the Shanksville crash site on Saturday. Bulldozers will start reshaping the land this week. Never mind that the only rule for the Flight 93 memorial's design competition was that the landscape had to be left as it was. In order to complete the full arc of the Crescent of Embrace (now called a broken circle, but still a giant Islamic-shaped crescent), an earthen causeway will have to be built across the wetlands that lie about 50 vertical feet below the crash site.

A contractor posted recently about his decision to turn down work on the memorial, despite economic hard times. Our friend Jeff just could not stomach the idea of helping to build a tribute to the enemy, a sentiment that is easy to understand and much appreciated. To anyone else who might find themselves in this situation, just be aware that there are other options. Someone is going to do the work, and if the pay is lucrative, it could be better for our cause to have that money go to someone who is on our side.

Blogburst author Alec Rawls has succeeded in driving driving quite a bit of Western Pennsylvania news coverage through the purchase of a half-dozen half-page full-color ads in the local Somerset paper. If anybody wants to fund another, Alec will gladly put the ad together. Call it anti-dhimmi jiu-jitsu. We can use the Park Service's own money against them.

If we don't succeed, then you have to live with knowing that you helped to build an abomination. There is no simple answer.

On the subject of worthy causes, long-time blogburst participant Curt at the excellent Flopping Aces blog is helping to orchestrate fundraising for Project Valour-IT, which helps provide voice-controlled computers and other technology to Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries.

Soldiers Angels, which hosts Valour-IT, is also fundraising for the victims of the jihad attack on Fort Hood.

To join our blogbursts, just send your blog's url.

Stealth Jihad

Imagine a lie that closes down a University. Imagine this lie forces the police to spend precious hours investigating it, while true crimes are being ignored. Imagine the University taking measures to increase security to prevent another lie from happening.

On October 10, 2008 this lie came to life.

The father of a Muslim student at Elmhurst College who was attacked by a masked gunman Thursday night in a campus bathroom said someone scrawled a swastika and anti-Muslim graffiti on her locker about a week ago. Authorities labeled the attack a hate crime Friday.

The college was briefly locked down after the 8:30 p.m. attack in a lower-level women's bathroom at the college's Schaible Science Center.

An ambulance was called but the student declined further medical treatment.

In an advisory posted on the college Web site today, the university called the attack an "aggravated battery / hate crime." The advisory also said that the attacker, described as about 5 feet, 8 inches tall, struck the woman with a firearm and that anti-Muslim graffiti was found in the restroom.

Reached by telephone Friday morning, the victim's father said she entered the bathroom yesterday and found a man there armed with a gun and wearing a black ski mask. The Tribune is not naming the victim at the father's request.

Full Story

A compelling lie about a hate crime. For in reality the truth finally came out a week later.

A Muslim student who claimed she was attacked at Elmhurst College in what school officials described as a hate crime has now been charged with making up the story.

Safia Z. Jilani, 19, of Oak Brook, told police that on Oct. 9, a masked, male attacker struck her in the head with a handgun after she entered a restroom in the Schaible Science Center on campus, according to a release from Elmhurst police.

But late Friday afternoon, Elmhurst police announced that a weeklong investigation determined the assault never occurred; there was no gunman; and Jilani was arrested on a warrant for filing a false police report, a Class 4 felony punishable by up to 3 years in prison.

Bond was set at $10,000 for Jilani, who posted $1,000 and was released, according to DuPage County State’s Attorney’s office spokesman Paul Darrah. Her next court hearing is Nov. 17 at 8:30 a.m. before Judge Kathryn Creswell.

Full Story

No attack, no hate crime, nothing happened. Hours of police work wasted because of this lie. Hospital personal's time wasted because of this lie. A University put into turmoil because of this lie. And for what? Did Safia Z. Jilani plan this lie to blackmail the University into money via a lawsuit? What was her reason for such a deed.

Knowing the Criminal Justice System, she will go to court, with a sorryful look on her face, and get off with a slap on the wrist.

IN RELATED NEWS

On September 29, 2008 the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton was subjected to a tear gas attack. Hate Crime! Terrorist Attck! Islamophobia! Was cried by the media and Muslims. The police were called in. The media was called in. The liberal, dhimmi left was condemning everyone not Muslim. And it all was a lie!

The can of pepper spray found four days after someone sprayed a 10-year-old girl in the face at a local mosque was discovered inside the mosque, a Dayton police lieutenant said.

The girl said she was sprayed about 9:40 p.m. Sept. 26 through an open basement window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, Lt. John Huber said.

A can of pepper spray was found Sept. 30 in another room in the basement inside a red and white-striped bag, Huber said. He said it was initially reported to him that the can was found near the mosque, but he later learned it was inside the mosque.

Chief Richard Biehl has said there is no evidence the girl was the victim of a hate crime.

Full Story

No attack. No hate crime. No terrorist attack. Another lie.

Now what do these 2 stories have in common? Both are examples of Stealth Jihad. Using lies, the courts and media to promote the misguided fact that they are the most discriminated group in a nation. Breaking down our resolve to maintain a true seperation between the Church and State.

Stealth Jihad is very effective. There are no riots, protests or angry mobs for the media to film. Just calm "victims" to cry on the various news shows. And based all based on lies.

As long as the police and media investigate each case and bring the liars to justice, we will be able to fight this. But I fear that the day will come when one of these lies will not be investigated and an innocent person charged with a crime.

God help us then. For they will have gained a legal foothold upon our Justice System.

Boycott: Swift Products

Please cross post this to your own sites.

First it was Labor Day and Tyson Foods, now it is Swift and more Stealth Jihad. Again and again Muslims are demanding and receiving special privileges not given to any other minority group. This time is a shorter work day so they can celebrate Ramadan.

A compromise reached to accommodate prayer for about 500 Somalian meatpacking plant workers in Grand Island led to a counter protest of even more workers at the JBS Swift & Co. plant Wednesday.

Workers including Caucasians, Hispanics, Vietnamese, and African-Americans walked out after clocking in on the B shift shortly after 3 p.m.

The objection -- a change in the break schedule that leaves B shift workers shorted of hours Monday through Friday and forces them to work Saturday to earn at least 40 hours of pay.

"The Somalians say they can only work three hours after sunset, so we're supposed to work 7.3 hours a day Monday through Friday," said Naomi Jakubowski. "We're supposed to come in and make up the time on Saturday or be shorted at just 36 hours."

"I don't want to sacrifice my Saturdays with my kids -- and I can't raise 'em on 36 hours of pay," she said. "I've got rent, food and diapers to buy."

He said the half-hour evening supper break on B shift will begin at 7:45 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. starting Wednesday and continue until the end of Ramadan on Oct. 1. The supper break will be taken en masse, he said.

The change was reached Tuesday night after negotiations between two local Swift officials, five designated Muslim leaders and three representatives of the UFCW, which represents 2,500 Swift workers, 500 of whom are Muslim.

"This will give them time to pray and satisfy their faith," Hoppes said.

But the B shift workers counterprotesting Wednesday said besides a change in the dinner break schedule, the standard 15-minute break during the 6 o'clock hour of B shift was broken into three 5-minute-long breaks to accommodate the Somalian prayer time.

Bernadino Orellana said the Hispanic workers have staffed the Swift plant for 20 to 30 years. The Somalian workers have come in the last year and changed everything -- Swift management has given in to the minority, she said.

"Nobody should have special privileges," shouted B shift protester Tina Ramirez. "Treat everybody fairly."

Counterprotesters raised objections Wednesday to a pay raise they say the Somalians were given and were bragging about Tuesday and Wednesday.

"Go back to work … get a representative of your culture to come to a meeting at 2 p.m. (Thursday)," she said as the crowd booed.

About a half hour later, Plant Manager Dennis Sydow, Operations Manager Mike Helzer and a plant owner from corporate headquarters in Greeley, Colo., stepped out to address the crowd.

More booing was heard and no workers made an effort to return to the line.

Reports were that more protesting was occurring inside on the kill and slaughter lines, but calls to the corporate office were not returned.

The counterprotesters finally broke up and marched from the Swift parking lot to Grand Island City Hall at about 6 p.m. The Muslim protesters had also staged a demonstration at Grand Island City Hall both Monday and Tuesday.

Hoppes said the compromise meeting on Tuesday came about after 500 Muslim workers walked off the job Monday in protest of not receiving prayer time during the 30-day holy period of Ramadan during the work shift.

Those workers are of Somalian and Sudanese background, he said. A similar protest occurred again Tuesday, with about 50 Muslim protesters.

The primary concern was for the evening prayer time, which signifies the end of a dawn-to-dusk fast.

Hoppes said other break times during the shift were adequate to address additional prayer times, but he said nothing of the 15-minute break being divided into three smaller break times.

Swift supervisors were to apologize to Muslim workers who were accused of taking too long on those breaks, which some had used for prayer, Hoppes said. An accounting of the break time taken was conducted and Hoppes said the company and union found no violations.

Hoppes said Muslim workers who did not show up for work, walked out of work, or did not notify supervisors of not coming to work will have a disciplinary letter placed in their personnel file.

"They will not be fired, but if it happens again they could be terminated," Hoppes said Wednesday.

The disciplinary letter was viewed by those protesting Wednesday as too light of a punishment.

"If we did that, we'd be fired," said Ramirez.

Hoppes said the union is continuing to investigate allegations that some praying workers were kicked by a supervisor and that a male supervisor followed a female worker into a bathroom as she attempted to pray. He said witnesses to those events have not surfaced and Swift is denying either incident happened.

Ramirez said Wednesday that the Somalians come late, leave early and take frequent breaks and "drop all the time" in prayer right in front of people, so people are literally tripping over their bodies.

"They don't do the work and we have to work double," she said. "It's not fair."

Hoppes had heard the rumors of a counterprotest early Wednesday, but hoped it wouldn't happen.

"I don't think there will be any problems, but there's always some people who aren't completely satisfied … and there may be a glitch or two," Hoppes said. "Really, the only change is the supper break going from 8 p.m. to 7:45 p.m."

B shift workers said the plant has been hampered by the protests this week. Normally, about 400 head of cattle are processed every hour, but that was down to about 220 to 260 an hour this week.

"Everyone has rights. Be equal. Be fair," a protester sign stated in the Swift parking lot Wednesday night.

"We all have religion," Ramirez said.

We all have religion. And we all have a right to worship our religion. But we don't have a right to force that religion on another person, or make a company comply to your religious demands.

Since JB Swift and Company wants to give into these demands, it is our responsiblity to tell them that we are not pleased with it and will not buy their products if they don't reverse themselves on this. It is our money and we can spend it as we want to.

The address is:

JB Swift and Company

1770 Promontory Circle
Greeley, CO 80634
970.506.8000

The website is here

Their email is Swift & Company

Remember to be polite in your communications with them, but let them know that you are angry.