Some Muslims in Metro Detroit are dissatisfied with a proposed lawsuit settlement by McDonald's in a case involving mislabeled food, Niraj Warikoo reports in the Free Press.
They're contesting how money will be divided from a tentative $700,000 settlement over complaints that a Dearborn location sold non-halal chicken advertised as halal (conforming with Islamic dietrary rules).
The settlement, reached last month between McDonald's and two organizations, calls for about $275,000 to go the Huda Clinic, a Muslim health center in Detroit; $150,000 to go to the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn; and $25,000 to go to a Dearborn Heights man who was the lead plaintiff. The remainder mostly would go to attorney fees.
Critics say the money should go instead to individuals who believe they ate non-halal McChicken sandwiches and McNuggets thinking they were halal, the Islamic equivalent of Jewish kosher.
Warikoo quotes 23-year-old Dearborn customer Hanadi Kesserouani: "Why should it go to groups that had nothing to do with this? We were the ones who were affected, not them."
Attorney Majed Moughni of Dearborn filed a complaint Jan. 25 in Wayne County Circuit Court, asking that the Jan. 7 settlement be set aside, or that people who might have been injured be given more time to challenge it. The case is to be heard Friday before Judge Kathleen MacDonald, who oversaw the settlement.
