In the first decade of the 21st century, a French businessman of Tunisian origin attacked America with bubbles from a narrow room in a poor neighborhood in Paris, when he launched a company that sells Mecca Cola, a halal and pro-Palestinian drink, which met with amazing international success.

This is what the writer on the French Mediapart website Rashida Al-Azouzi started with a lengthy report on a soft drink, which she said shook the entity of the two American soda giants, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, despite what the drink was labeled as "Islamic", "racial" and " Sectarian. "

But Tawfiq Mathlouthi, producer of "Mecca-Cola" responds to those charges, saying in an interview with him by phone: "We are an alternative political cola, denouncing American crimes and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the victims are exclusively Muslims, as well as against Israeli colonialism."

The 64-year-old businessman, known for his absolute support for the Palestinian cause, reiterates that he is far from anti-Jews or anti-Semitic, but he is a fierce anti-Zionist.

And stresses that the name of his drink has nothing to do with Makkah Al-Mukarramah in Saudi Arabia, but rather "it is taken from the name of the Muslim tribe of Mecca that was part of the Native Americans, and which the white Christians exterminated from its reel during their founding of the United States of America, the terrorist state since its inception." His expression.

Mathlothi is currently based in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, as the headquarters of his company, which started in a headquarters of not more than 18 square meters in the Saint Denis poor neighborhood in Paris, and that was in November 2002 and the first day of Ramadan that year.

The "Mecca-Cola" drink adventure was not the first work of Mathlothi that caused controversy, as he established the Middle East Radio "Radio Meditrani" 10 years ago, to be the voice of the oppressed from Morocco, the Levant, the suburbs of France, or even the wretched of the Bosnian war.

Mathlouthi came to France at the age of 20 to continue his studies in law, and he only had something worth 30 euros with him, and he was succeeded by his father, who was an imam of a mosque, and his mother and 8 brothers and sisters he is responsible for as the eldest son in the family.

Representative of Zamzam Cola

In the beginning, Mathlothi did not want to create his own cola drink. Rather, he just wanted to become a representative of the Iranian "anti-imperialist" drink which is considered the pioneer of Islamic soft drinks "Zamzam Cola", as part of the campaign he was waging with other activists on Israel because of the way it responded to the Palestinian uprising.

That drink, which was established in 1954 in Iran by the last shah, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, was called Zamzam Cola after the blessed water that comes out from Ein at a distance of 20 meters from the Kaaba, and this drink remained a partner of PepsiCo until the Islamic Revolution in the year 1979.

Mathlouthi later expresses his gratitude to the Iranians, because they did not respond to his request to represent their drink in France, as this prompted him to think about creating his own soft drink, especially since he believes that the rule is tyrannical, and this is what he says he would like not to have any kind of cooperation between him and his family .

The success of Mecca Cola

Mathlothi recounts his story with Mecca Cola, and says that he collected 20 thousand euros from his surroundings and allocated it entirely to build his project, without spending anything on advertisements, and launched his drink with slogans such as: "Be different", "Do not drink stupidly", and "Drink while you are." He made a case, "and put the name of his drink in white on a bottle that looked like a Coca-Cola bottle. Not a year passed, until it was sold in San Danis for more than a million liters, after which it spread in a short time all over the world, and even in Arab cities inside Israel, and its sales reached billions of liters.

Between November 2002 and January 2004, Mecca Cola achieved sales of 3 million, 577 and 713 euros, and was chosen by the President of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) - the second largest organization after the United Nations and comprising 57 member states - to make it its official partner. On her occasions.

Mathlouthi says that Mecca Cola remained for 3 years the third brand in the world after Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and it came second in its first year in France after Coca-Cola was ahead of Pepsi.

But he was subjected to a widespread smear campaign in the media in France, so they linked his drink to "crazy God", and labeled it as "terrible", to the extent that Le Point magazine put this title "God Cola arrives in France", although Mecca Soda does not say when you open it "God Akbar does not perform the five daily prayers, "as he put it.

It is noteworthy that Coca-Cola, which was founded by a Jew, was not exposed to this campaign, and no one said it was a "Jewish drink."

The businessman adds that he used to donate up to 80% of his profits to official Palestinian organizations, not including the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

Mecca Cola Inspiration

But he confirms that Mecca Kola today went to the Rohingya, who were subjected to genocide at the hands of the Buddhists in Burma, and it provides them with many different services that they urgently need.

The site says that Mecca Cola represented an inspiration to other Muslim businessmen in the West, so "Qibla Cola" was established in Britain, "Muslim App" in France, "Aqsa Cola" in Denmark, and "Salaam Cola" in California, America, all of which disappeared today for economic reasons. Or because of politicization and excessive polarization that ultimately alienates consumers.

But Mecca Cola is still resisting, although it almost disappeared from Europe, except in small quantities in Italy, Belgium and Spain, due to "the war waged against us by the Zionist organizations," as he put it.

Mecca Cola is no longer sold in only 65 countries, most of them in Asia, and in Brazil, but Mathlothi today refuses to disclose the income of his company, as he considers that his disclosure of this in the past is what opened the fire of haters.

Mecca Cola has seen many setbacks in the West as well as in the Arab world. In 2012, the Federal Supreme Court of the United Arab Emirates banned the registration of this trademark, because it is "too much associated with debt," but it is preparing to launch a new product for it called "Q-Cola", for the benefit of Qatar Airways. .