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Fast-food goes halal in France

An unidentified employee wearing an Islamic headscarf works at the counter of Beurger King Muslim, or BKM, at Clichy-sous-Bois, an eastern Paris suburb, on Thursday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Sophie Nicholson Associated Press
An unidentified employee wearing an Islamic headscarf works at the counter of Beurger King Muslim, or BKM, at Clichy-sous-Bois, an eastern Paris suburb, on Thursday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

PARIS – Muslims in France are having it their way with “Beurger King” – a new fast-food restaurant that caters to the country’s large Islamic population.

The bright and colorful eatery was launched in July in an eastern Paris suburb crowded with immigrants and dilapidated housing projects. Its name plays on the French word “Beur,” meaning a second-generation North African living in France.

The menu at Beurger King Muslim, or BKM, is standard fast-food fare: burgers, fries, sundaes and doughnuts, and prices are comparable to those at major chains. But the beef and chicken burgers are halal – meaning made with meat slaughtered according to Islamic dietary laws.

Waitresses wear Islamic head scarves, as do many of their customers.

Mouna Talbi, 24, traveled 55 miles to Clichy-sous-Bois with her husband and two small sons to try it out.

“I was so happy to come here that I had tears in my eyes when I walked in,” she said, watching her sons climb on colored blocks in the play area as she ate a halal burger.

After the success of Mecca Cola, a soft drink marketed to French Muslims, it was perhaps only a matter of time before a Muslim-themed, fast-food restaurant opened in the country with Western Europe’s largest Islamic population.

Talbi’s children always clamor for fast food, but this was the first time they’ve been able to order something other than fish, she said.

“A woman in Muslim dress feels at home here,” she said, sitting in a red tunic and matching head scarf.

Three Muslim friends from the Paris suburbs set up the restaurant after seeing similar restaurants in Thailand and Algeria. They saw a demand for a clean, family-oriented, halal fast-food restaurant that would offer an alternative to the big non-halal chains and the many downscale halal street vendors.

One of the founders, Morad Benhamida, 33, said he and his partners worked for almost two years on a business plan to convince French backers.

“I was shocked when my bank manager believed in the project straight away,” he said, sitting under an umbrella on the restaurant’s terrace.

Burger King, the U.S.’s second-largest fast-food chain, has no restaurants in France, according to its Web site. When asked about the Muslim restaurant, Lauren Hammann, a spokeswoman for Burger King Corp. in Miami, would only say: “We are aware of the matter and we’re looking into it.”

Customers, including non-Muslims, said the restaurant was not segregating Muslims but showing a normal, peaceful Muslim activity that was open to all.

“Both Muslims and other people feel at ease here,” Ahmed Talbi said. “Maybe this kind of place will help to correct the bad image of Muslims and tell the world to stop talking nonsense about us.”