McDonald's stirs 'Halal' controversy after Zomato, netizens boycott it

After food delivery giant Zomato, now McDonald's India has stepped in hot water on Thursday after it tweeted about its 'Halal meat'. The 'Halal' controversy started when an Indian customer questioned if 'McDonald’s India was halal certified?'. To which, McDonald's first replied that all their meat was procured from government-approved suppliers who were certified by India's Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) board. In a bid to reassure the customer, they went on to declare that 'all their restaurants have Halal certificates'. This led to Twitter erupt into a heated debate.

Here's what McDonald's tweeted:

Zomato user's Tweet that resulted in a nationwide controversy over food, religion et al is no longer available

Many Twitter users took offence to be allegedly forced to eat 'Halal' meat. Most users claimed their religious sentiments were hurt. Some (mainly Hindus) questioned what would happen to their preference i.e. 'Jhatka meat'. This lead to a Twitter storm which is currently trending at the time of writing #BoycottMcDonalds.

Here are the objections taken to McDonald's 'Halal' declaration:

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Zomato stirs controversy

This Twitter storm is similar to Zomato's 'Halal'controversy. Zomato India received massive praise on social media initially on July 31, when it gave a befitting reply to a customer, who cancelled his order because the delivery guy who was assigned for his food delivery was a "non-Hindu". Zomato India said that food does not have a religion. It is a religion.

But it stoked controversy when it explained its stance with a 'Food for thought' tweet. After the issue heated up, Zomato defended its usage of Halal tag on the platform with a new statement.  Zomato said: "it's a result of restaurants seeking that distinction - not us as an aggregator."  It continued to explains that restaurants (whether a Muslim establishment or otherwise) serving meat specifically obtain halal certification by an all-India body, not them. Zomato's move was praised by many eminent leaders.

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The #BoycottZomato trend

Zomato's move did not sit well with many netizens. It was soon witnessed that #BoycottZomato was trending. After Zomato's competitor Uber Eats openly backed Zomato's 'Food has no religion' comment,  #BoycottUberEats too started trending. Internet was mainly divided between slamming bigotry or think about hurt religious sentiments.