A Muslim woman had bacon deliberately placed in a fish sandwich by employees of McDonald’s restaurant in Massachusetts where she ordered it, Fox Business reports citing a discrimination complaint filed on the woman’s behalf by the Council on American-Islamic Relations with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
According to the media outlet, the incident occurred last June at a McDonald's restaurant in Chicopee, when the woman, Ghadir Alahmar, walked into the venue with her twin 7-year old sons and ordered a plain fish sandwich.
Having received their order, Alahmar and her sons went to a school playground nearby where they intended to eat, when one of the children noticed the presence of bacon in the sandwich.
"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," Alahmar said in a statement. "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?"
Later that day, the woman’s husband returned to the restaurant with the uneaten portion of the sandwich and was “refunded the purchase price”, the media outlet notes.
The complaint also points out that the sandwich apparently did not just contain bacon, but had extra bacon in it.
"It is commonly known that Islam forbids Muslims from eating pork," the complaint 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."