Perkasa Wants Muslims To Boycott Starbucks And Microsoft Because They're Pro-LGBT

"Perkasa urges Muslims in this country to boycott Starbucks because this United States-based international coffee chain supports LGBT and same-sex marriage," said the NGO's Islamic affairs bureau head, Amini Amir Abdullah in a statement, as reported by Malay Mail Online.

In a report by Malaysiakini yesterday, 2 July, Amini Amir said that the government should revoke the business licenses of companies that support LGBT rights.

LGBT refers to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community.

"(Their business license should be revoked) because they support homosexual marriages and the LGBT community, which is against our country's aspirations and the national agenda," said Amini Amir, as reported by Malaysiakini.

"Perkasa believes that the LGBT not only goes against Islam, but it is also against the order of nature. LGBT has also never been acknowledged by the Muslim majority in this country and abroad.

"There has never been a fatwa in 1,438 years that allowed LGBT practices," he opined.

Reuters reported that the organisation, Anwar Abbas of Muhammadiyah, thinks that the Indonesian government should revoke Starbucks' operating license as its pro-LGBT stand is "not in line" with the country's ideology.

"If Starbucks only does business, then fine. But don't bring ideology here," the organisation told Reuters.

Anwar Abbas of Muhammadiyah has more than 30 million members - that's more than the population of Malaysia.

Homosexuality is legal in Indonesia, except for Muslims in the Aceh province and the city of Palembang.

A year later, a shareholder complained to Schultz that Starbucks' pro-LGBT stand has cost the company its customers.

"In the first full quarter after this boycott was announced, our sales and our earnings, shall we say politely, were a bit disappointing," said the shareholder, Tom Strobhar, as reported by the Huffington Post in March 2013.

Schultz stood his ground, and responded by saying, "Not every decision is an economic decision. Despite the fact that you recite statistics that are narrow in time, we did provide a 38% shareholder return over the last year. I don't know how many things you invest in, but I would suspect not many things, companies, products, investments have returned 38% over the last 12 months.

"Having said that, it is not an economic decision to me. The lens in which we are making that decision is through the lens of our people. We employ over 200,000 people in this company, and we want to embrace diversity. Of all kinds."

Both Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer donated USD100,000 each to the Washington United for Marriage. The coalition's work on upholding the state's gay marriage law led to a landmark marriage equality bill in Washington State that legally recognises same-sex marriage.

Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft and Ballmer is the former chief executive officer of Microsoft.

Ric Weiland, one of the first five employees of Microsoft left USD65 million to pro-gay organisations after his suicide in 2006.

• Apple Inc.
• Google
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Expedia
• Amazon
• PepsiCo (The company that owns Tropicana, Quaker Oats, Gatorade, Lipton, etc.)
• Mondelēz International (The company that owns Oreo, Cadbury, Toblerone, etc.)
• Nike
• Ben & Jerry's
• Marc Jacobs
• Ebay
• Mastercard