From Associated Press
by Jeff Karoub
DETROIT (AP) — The only two McDonald’s restaurants in the United States that were serving food prepared according to Islamic law have stopped several weeks after a $700,000 settlement over a lawsuit that alleged the items weren’t consistently halal.
The fast-food giant said in a statement Monday that the locations in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, which has a large Muslim population, are no longer offering a halal McChicken sandwich or Chicken McNuggets in order “to focus on our national core menu.”
The corporation added it takes into account “local and dietary preferences,” and supports its franchisees in Dearborn. Neither the statement nor a spokeswoman said whether McDonald’s decision was related to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, brought by customer Ahmed Ahmed in 2011, technically covered anyone who bought the halal-advertised products between September 2005 and January from the restaurant on Ford Road and another one in Dearborn with a different owner. The second location wasn’t a defendant or a focus of the investigation.
A letter sent to McDonald’s and restaurant franchisee Finley’s Management, by attorney Kassem Dakhlallah’s firm Jaafar and Mahdi Law Group, said Ahmed had “confirmed from a source familiar with the inventory” that the restaurant had sold non-halal food “on many occasions.”
