Muslims Go Straight to Hell for Patronizing Starbucks, Declares Viral Preacher

An Indonesian preacher declared that Muslims getting their coffee fix at Starbucks are hellbound in a nearly hourlong video carried by Islamic channel Fodamara TV’s YouTube.

During the 2016 ISIS bomb and gun attacks in Jakarta, one suicide bomber detonated his device outside of a Starbucks near the Sarinah shopping mall; four people were killed excluding the terrorists. In June, radical cleric Aman Abdurrahman was sentenced to death for orchestrating the attack; from behind bars, he ordered the May church bombings in Surabaya in which 13 people were killed and 13 attackers — members of two families — perished.

The video by preacher Abdul Somad said patronizing Starbucks is sinful because the coffee chain supports LGBT causes.

“In the afterlife … the angels will ask the [LGBT community], ‘How did [your community] grow so big?’  [The LGBT community] will respond, ‘Because of the donations [given to us]. ‘Who gave you the donations?’  ‘Those who are in heaven,'” Somad said, adding at that point patrons of Starbucks would be pulled out of heaven and cast into hell.

Muslim scholar Akhmad Sahal said that Somad was being a hypocrite because the video, which was originally posted last year but just went viral, was carried on social media outlets that also support LGBT rights.

“Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, all of them support LGBT rights. Based on his logic, wouldn’t that mean its users will go to hell too?” Sahal tweeted.

Last summer, Anwar Abbas of Muhammadiyah, an Islamic organization that boasts some 30 million members in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, argued that the government should revoke Starbucks’ license.

Abbas told Reuters at the time that he was disturbed by comments in favor of same-sex marriage from former Starbucks CEO and chairman Howard Schultz.

“If Starbucks only does business, then fine. But don’t bring ideology here,” Abbas said.

Starbucks opened its first Indonesia outlet in 2002 and has grown to 326 locations in 22 cities, as of January statistics from the company.