Church fury over opening of McDonald’s on Christmas Day as Muslim manager is drafted in

Church leaders have hit out at a branch of McDonald’s which is to open on Christmas Day. A Muslim branch manager has been drafted in by the fast food outlet to cover for the usual boss who is taking the day off and staff have volunteered to work that day for seven hours.

Parish Rvd Wayne Stillwell said the decision to open the branch showed “the continuing decline of Christendom in this country” and his reaction was “one of great sadness”. He added: “I’m sad that we’ve got to this point in our society where something that means as much as Christmas seems to mean so little. It shows the continuing decline of Christendom in our country.”

Daily Mail, 7 December 2011


The report would appear to have been lifted from the Derby Telegraph. It’s instructive to see how the Mail puts its spin on this story. There are of course no “church leaders” who express “fury” at McDonald’s decision, just one vicar who expresses “sadness”, and his church is in fact on the other side of Derby. Whereas the original report places a favourable quote from the Dean of Derby (“Families and friends should come together at Christmas, and if they want to do that in McDonald’s then who are the Church to object?”) at the top of the article, the Mail buries it near the bottom. And of course the Mail highlights the fact that the replacement manager is a Muslim, in order to harness the story to its “Islamification of Britain” agenda.