McDonald’s intentionally sold Muslim family bacon, complaint says

BOSTON (AP) - A civil rights group says workers at a McDonald’s restaurant in Massachusetts intentionally put bacon on a fish sandwich that a Muslim woman had ordered for one of her children.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced Wednesday that it had filed a discrimination complaint on the woman’s behalf with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

Followers of Islam are not supposed to eat pork products.

An email seeking comment was left with McDonald’s corporate headquarters in Chicago. A message was also left with someone who answered the phone at Gomez Enterprises LLC, which operates the McDonald’s restaurant on Meadow Street in Chicopee.

The complaint is the first step in the process for seeking monetary damages, according to CAIR lawyer Barbara Dougan. She also hopes it prompts McDonald’s to better train its workers to prevent a similar incident in the future.

“Anti-Muslim bias takes many forms,” Dougan said. “But you can’t go much lower than tampering with the food of a young child. We hope that McDonald’s will find these actions as appalling as we do.”

The advocacy group also shared a picture of the sandwich in question:

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