caribou coffee invades c-u

The Caribou Coffee chain has come to C-U (while just C right now), tucked inside the County Market in Southwest Champaign. Evidently, a grocery store just isn’t a grocery store anymore without an on-site coffee shop. Meijer has Starbucks’s, the Urbana Schnuck’s has something called Kaldi’s, which is out of St. Louis.

There was once a Caribou Coffee in my hometown, but about five years ago it was boycotted out of the community when it fell victim to an Internet rumor that inferred that the company supported Palestinian and other radical Islamic terrorist organizations. The reality is that Caribou Coffee was owned by Bahrain-based First Islamic Investment Bank, now called Arcapita. Caribou is publicly traded, but Arcapita remains its primary shareholder. Arcapita operates under the principles of Shariah Finance (thus you will never see alcohol or pork products sold at a Caribou Coffee).

At the time of the boycott, a member of the company’s board of directors was a man named Sheik Yusuf Abdullah Al-Qaradawi, who is often described as a “radical Muslim cleric” and is a vocal supporter of terror against Americans and Israelis. He was banned from the U.S. in 1999. The company severed ties with the man and reviewed its charitable giving to make sure that no funds were going to groups banned under U.S. law in order to manage its P.R. crisis.

Why am I telling this story? Because to this day I still cannot think of Caribou Coffee without thinking “supports terrorists.” Perhaps that makes me weak-minded — or just human. Maybe I just need another cuppa joe.

Speaking of which, I’m sure some of you are wondering why we need more coffee houses in this town. We might be the most caffeinated community in the state of Illinois.