McDonald’s Halal Food Controversy Resolved

“I felt disgusted knowing I ate  Non-Halal food,” said Fatima Mustapha, a student at Unis Middle School.

There have been only two McDonald’s restaurants in the United States  that has offered Halal food. Both were located in East Dearborn, Michigan which has a sizable population of Arab-American Muslims.

 

McDonald's on Warren Ave. & Wyoming Ave. in Dearborn, MI

McDonald’s on Warren Ave. & Wyoming Ave. in Dearborn, MI

At the McDonald’s Ford Road location, a sign in Arabic and English is now on the  drive-through menu informing customers that Halal items are no longer available.

But after a  lawsuit that accused the restaurant  of selling non-Halal items advertised as Halal, McDonald’s has took its Halal Chicken McNuggets and Halal McChicken sandwiches off the menu. The move brings to an end a unique product that made the two McDonald’s restaurants in Dearborn popular with Muslims.

Ahmed Ahmed, used his detective skills after purchasing a Halal Chicken Sandwich.  He discovered that one of the Dearborn locations wasn’t complying with Islamic dietary laws. This McDonald’s franchise gets its products from an approved Halal Chicken provider, but when it ran out, it start substituting Non-Halal products and figured nobody would notice. Ahmed’s investigation paid off.

McDonald’s and Finley’s Management Company (franchise owners) agreed to pay $700,000 to members of the Muslim Community to settle allegations concernng false advertisements that  its food was being prepared according to Islamic dietary law. The money will be split between customer Ahmed  Ahmed, a Detroit health clinic, and the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.

” Ew, I was eating pink slime this whole time,” said Hussein Saleh. Many Muslims feel violated by the lies the McDonald’s owners told.

Latifah Jomaa

Unis School Journalist

8 Comments

  1. Wow, your story was very effective. The quotes that you used really made me stop and think about the way that McDonald’s lied to us. I can relate to this story because I’ve been eating their food since I was little and now it makes me sick to my stomach. The evidence that was used to find out what type of chicken was being used in their sandwiches was one of my favorite parts. It showed that McDonald’s lied to their customers faces when they ran out of the halal version of the chicken. Your story really shows how fast food services aren’t always trustworthy. Who knows who else is lying to us, but with stories like these, we’ll find out.

  2. Awesome story!!!
    Well just reading this article I felt like vomiting.That’s just disgusting finding that your hamburger is pink or your chicken isn’t tender. Well in my opinion if I found out that sandwich isn’t halal i would do the same thing Ahmad did I would sue them.

  3. it is cool that they say that there food is halal and that food is not halal that is why mulism will not eat not halal food because that do something to the food and so that is why i do not eat halal food and this is a great story.

  4. I liked this article because it made me think twice. At first no one including me really realized the issue here and after reading about it, it defiantly changed my perspective and made me very disgusted. I love stories like these because it lets out real truth that people never really look into. Great Job!

  5. We all Arabs feel disgusted, this wasn’t right of them to do. It’s just like saying what if we disobeyed on oh their rules. You are absolutely right , and your reasons were on point. Amazing job keep it up.

  6. Finally good that everyone knows the truth. VERY crazy how these restaurants pulls these kind of stunts and get away with it. Very good article to let everyone be aware of how disgusting fast food restaurants can be.

  7. I think that the idea of having halal food at a fast food store is a great idea because more Muslims will buy more products and that will help more fast food companies grow.

    Abdulsattar Nasser 3rd hour

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