$700,000 to Muslim Community as McDonalds Claim for Halal Food Turns False
Finley’s Management & McDonalds got ahead of the issue and agreed on a settlement for everyone’s best interests.
The ever renowned chain of fast food restaurant McDonalds agreed to pay out an amount of $700,000 to the members of Michigan’s Muslim community when a case of serving non-halal food was brought up by a local resident.
The discovery of McDonald’s negligence came forward when a local resident Ahmed Ahmed bought a chicken sandwich from a franchise in Dearborn neighbourhood of Detroit back in September 2011. He found out through some source later that the food was not prepared in a halal way although the restaurant claimed to be preparing food for the Muslim community according to the Islamic requirements.
According to the letter sent out to McDonald’s and Finley’s Management, ‘Mr. Ahmed confirmed from a source familiar with the inventory’ that on many occasions the restaurant was not serving halal food on its premises. When Mr. Ahmed found out about the non-halal catering he contacted his lawyer, Mr. Kassem Dakhlallah, to carry out an investigation together which yielded the confirmation of the situation.
At first McDonald’s and Finley’s Management showed no response to the claim and the letter. It was only after a lawsuit filed that the management decided to agree on a tentative amount settlement. The amount of $700,000 is to be provided to the Muslim community which will be shared by Mr. Ahmed, the lawyers involved, a health clinic in Detroit and an Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.
It is for the best interests of all the parties involved in this case that McDonald’s and Finley’s Management has agreed to pay out the tentative amount while on the other hand they are also denying any liability of the issue. According to Finley’s Management, their system design is carefully planned to prepare and serve halal food. “The halal chicken products are labeled, stored, refrigerated and cooked in halal-only areas”, the settlement notice claimed.
The company presses on the fact that its employees are trained well to prepare halal food and a strict adherence to the Islamic process is observed. Mr. Dakhlallah believes that this issue did come out of the company’s negligence but it cannot be put under the perception that McDonald’s deliberately decided to deceive its customers in this area and there is no evidence for it as well.
The good part is that McDonald’s showed responsibility towards the case and took it seriously. According to Mr. Dakhlallah, the management made it very clear from the beginning that they wanted to resolve it and went ahead of the problem. Now that the issue is cleared, the preliminary deal will be finalized expectantly on 1st March of this year.
[divider]Sadaf Siddique
Sadaf Siddique holds a degree in Computers and a Masters in Business Administration. She is the mother of a 2-year-old boy, a part-time writer and a full-time homemaker.
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