Muslims Making Push to Join McDonald's Fries Settlement

July 5, 2002

Ancient religions, beef-besmirched french fries and a Mc-million-dollar settlement will tangle in a Chicago courtroom next week.

At stake is more than $12 million that Ronald McDonald's corporate ringmasters have agreed to pay for not telling people for more than a decade that a "natural flavoring" in their potatoes owes more to cows than spuds.

The class-action lawsuits filed last year included Hindus, Sikhs, Jews and vegetarians - all groups with clear reasons for wanting beef-free fries.

But this week, American Muslims started an e-mail campaign, saying that the Islamic food code called "halal" means they were just as injured by McDonald's and should be included in the settlement.

Muslims who follow halal are supposed to avoid eating beef that was not slaughtered according to specific ritual requirements. Muslims who ate McDonald's fries assuming that the potatoes were halal have until Monday to officially register their unhappiness with a judge in Chicago.

"Personally, I started eating the fries based on the information they [McDonald's] gave," said Abdul Malik Mujahid, president of Soundvision, which sells Islam-related products, and former national president of the Islamic Circle of North America. "Muslim consumers should have been part of the lawsuit to begin with."

That only a smidgen of beef was included in the fries didn't make it acceptable, said Cherie Travis, a Chicago-area vegetarian who has been active in the legal fight. She is working with a lawyer who is trying to gain formal recognition for Muslims in the settlement.

"What if they said, 'There's only a little bit of poodle in there'? If you're offended, the quantity is not the issue," she said.

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