Mcdonalds sued for violating Islamic dietary law - analysis

Originally found here. Republished for fair use and discussion purposes.

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You might think that I am going to go after McDonalds for caving to Islamic interests by serving Halal food, but I'm not. The article says that there are 150,000 Muslims in Dearborn, so it seems like a prudent business decision to provide a product for those consumers.

The reason I'm posting this is the idea that a Muslim would go to McDonalds to eat, and then expect that Halal Chicken McNuggets are honoring to Allah, but non-Halal McNuggets dishonor Allah. Remember, we are talking about fast food and religious acceptability. Devote Muslims go to MCDONALDS to partake of holy food?

The original lawsuit stated that the plaintiff was suing for "emotional distress" from eating McDonald's non-Halal food. It is interesting to see how this lawsuit morphed into a Muslim community benefit, where unrelated parties, after submitting proposals to the attorneys, received part of the settlement.

The other thing I wanted to note is the allocation of the lawsuit's settlement: $275,000 to the Huda Clinic, $150,000 to the museum, $230,000 to attorneys and $20,000 to Ahmed. 

The word Huda apparently means "guidance," although the name is also an acronym for "Health Unit on Davidson Avenue." The Huda Clinic's website says, "HUDA first opened its doors in May 2004 to serve the uninsured population of the Detroit area. The clinic was operated on initial funds gathered by the Muslim community of Metro Detroit." So it's clearly a Muslim enterprise, and probably caters mostly, if not exclusively, to Muslims.

If you poke around the website a bit, you will find links to the Muslim Observer. On that website is commentary and bits of news that are of particular interest to Muslims, including this article on revising textbooks to more accurately reflect Muslim presence in history. The article says about a particular text book they don't like, "Our exposure to information at a young age sets the tone for all future understanding. This textbook reflects an outdated, Bible mythology-based world view that is racist, historically inaccurate and absolutely inappropriate for use in a public school."

We start to see the tangled web of interrelated websites and advocacy groups, doubtless populated by many of the same people. Another settlement recipient is the Arab American National Museum. The museum is dedicated to "...to Arab American history and culture," which simply means that this is another initiative to bring Muslims into the mainstream consciousness of America in order to establish the legitimacy of their ideas. Interestingly, the museum is an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, which carries a lot of clout. 

This website also indicates it is a project of Access, which has two other 'projects,"the Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP) and the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC). The CAAP is connected to a bewildering array of state and national organizations.

As is the NNAAC. The NNAAC is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, Four Freedoms Fund, Open Society Foundations, Proteus Fund, Rights Working Group, Rutegers Presbyterian Church, and State Voices. I don't have time to chase down all these connections, but as you can see there are myriad implications to a tangled network like this. It makes one wonder what they're really up to.

I mention all of that to note that there are connections to connections to connections. I suspect that one could find connections to terrorists and extremists. It seems clear that McDonalds has in essence funded a particular world view that has generally been inimical to western Judeo-Christian perspectives.

The last recipient of funds is the attorney, Kassem Dakhlallah, who received the lion's share. I guess even in Islam attorneys are bloodsuckers.

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DEARBORN, Michigan – McDonald's and one of its franchise owners agreed to pay $700,000 to members of the Muslim community to settle allegations a Detroit-area restaurant falsely advertised its food as being prepared according to Islamic dietary law.

McDonald's and Finley's Management Co. agreed Friday to the tentative settlement, with that money to be shared by Dearborn Heights resident Ahmed Ahmed, a Detroit health clinic, the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn and lawyers.

Ahmed's attorney, Kassem Dakhlallah, told The Associated Press on Monday that he's "thrilled" with the preliminary deal that's expected to be finalized March 1. McDonald's and Finley's Management deny any liability but say the settlement is in their best interests.

The lawsuit alleged that Ahmed bought a chicken sandwich in September 2011 at a Dearborn McDonald's but found it wasn't halal -- meaning it didn't meet Islamic requirements for preparing food. Islam forbids consumption of pork, and God's name must be invoked before an animal providing meat for consumption is slaughtered.

Dakhlallah said there are only two McDonald's in the United States that sell halal products and both are in Dearborn, which has one of the nation's largest Arab and Muslim communities. Overall, the Detroit area is home to about 150,000 Muslims of many different ethnicities.

The locations advertise that they exclusively sell halal Chicken McNuggets and McChicken sandwiches and they have to get those products from an approved halal provider, Dakhlallah said. He said there was no evidence of problems on the production side, but he alleges that the Dearborn location on Ford Road sold non-halal products when it ran out of halal.

Dakhlallah said he was approached by Ahmed, and they conducted an investigation. A letter sent to McDonald's Corp. and Finley's Management by Dakhlallah's firm said Ahmed had "confirmed from a source familiar with the inventory" that the restaurant had sold non-halal food "on many occasions."

After they received no response to the letter, Dakhlallah said, they filed a lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court in November 2011 as part of a class action.

The AP left messages Monday afternoon for attorneys representing the corporation and the franchise.

In the settlement notice, Finley's Management said it "has a carefully designed system for preparing and serving halal such that halal chicken products are labeled, stored, refrigerated, and cooked in halal-only areas." The company added it trains its employees on preparing halal food and "requires strict adherence to the process."

He said although Ahmed believes McDonald's was negligent, there was no evidence that the chain set out to deceive customers.

"McDonald's from the very beginning stepped up and took this case very seriously," Dakhlallah said. "They made it clear they wanted to resolve this. They got ahead of the problem."

The lawsuit covers anyone who bought the halal-advertised products from the Ford Road restaurant and another Dearborn McDonald's with a different owner between September 2005 and last Friday. Since that would be impossible to determine, Dakhlallah said both sides agreed to provide money to community-based charities that benefit members of this group.

The other location on Michigan Avenue wasn't a defendant or a focus of the investigation, Dakhlallah said.

He said the final hearing will ultimately determine who gets what and how much, but roughly $275,000 is expected to go to the Huda Clinic, about $150,000 to the museum, $230,000 to attorneys and $20,000 to Ahmed.

Dakhlallah said he believes it's the first lawsuit of its kind related to McDonald's and halal food.

In 2002, McDonald's agreed to donate $10 million to Hindu and other groups in the U.S. to settle lawsuits that accused the chain of mislabeling french fries and hash browns as vegetarian. The vegetable oil used to prepare the items had contained traces of beef for flavoring purposes.