Workers at a McDonald’s restaurant in Massachusetts deliberately put bacon on a fish sandwich {that a} Muslim girl had ordered for considered one of her kids, a civil rights group mentioned Wednesday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a discrimination grievance on the lady’s behalf with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
“It is commonly known that Islam forbids Muslims from eating pork,” the grievance says.
“McDonald’s employees willfully added bacon to the complainant’s food in an effort to offend, humiliate, and cause distress to complainant and her young children.”
The grievance is step one within the course of for looking for financial damages, mentioned Barbara Dougan, a CAIR lawyer. She additionally hopes it prompts McDonald’s to raised practice its staff to forestall an analogous incident sooner or later.
“Religious discrimination at a place of public accommodation is not only illegal, but also morally reprehensible,” she mentioned in an announcement.
An electronic mail looking for remark was left with McDonald’s company headquarters in Chicago. A message was additionally left with somebody who answered the telephone at Gomez Enterprises LLC, which operates the McDonald’s restaurant on Meadow Street in Chicopee.
The expertise prompted one the kids to ask his mom if “they hate us.”
“McDonald’s made my children and me feel unwanted and worthless by intentionally stuffing a fish sandwich full of bacon for no other reason than to punish us for our faith and religious convictions,” the lady, Ghadir Alahmar, mentioned in an announcement. “This really hurt us. My children now wonder if they are welcome in their own country. They ask me, ‘Do they hate us?’ How is a mother supposed to answer that question?”
Alahmar, who wears a hajib and an abaya, entered the shop on June 29 of final yr together with her twin 7-year-old sons, the grievance says. She ordered a plain fish sandwich, and had considered one of her kids repeat the order to a employee in case they didn’t perceive her accent.
They acquired their order, which included fries and cookies, and left the restaurant to stroll to a close-by faculty playground the place they deliberate to eat. One of her sons observed the bacon.
The sandwich not solely had bacon on it, however appeared to have additional bacon, the grievance says.
They didn’t eat the bacon, however one son ate the decrease half of the bun and a part of the fish filet, in response to the grievance.
Alahmar’s husband returned to the shop with the uneaten portion of the sandwich later that very same night and was refunded the acquisition worth.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”