MaDonal | |
---|---|
Restaurant information | |
Owner(s) | Suleiman Qassab |
City | Sulaymaniyah |
Country | Iraq |
MaDonal ( Sorani Kurdish: مادۆنال) is a restaurant located in the city of Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan. It is designed to resemble the fast food chain McDonald's both in appearance and in menu; [1] [2] [3] [4] for instance, MaDonal's menu includes " Big Macks." [5] [6] It is one of two McDonald's-like restaurants in the town; the other one, Matbax, claims that MaDonal is "cheap quality". [7]
The owner, Suleiman Qassab, fought in the Kurdish resistance during the 1970s. He became a refugee in Vienna, Austria, where he got a job as a cook at McDonald's. In the 1990s, he applied for permits to create a McDonald's in Iraq, but the McDonald's Corporation turned him down, due to economic sanctions imposed during the regime of Saddam Hussein, as well as the controlled economy of Iraq at the time. [ citation needed] In response, he established MaDonal Restaurant, which is still in business. [8] Since establishing MaDonal, Qassab has offered free food to U.S. forces, been threatened, [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] and has become a "Kurdish celebrity." [15] Qassab hopes to one day turn MaDonal into an actual McDonald's restaurant. [16] [17]
MaDonal is popular with Sulaymaniyah's youth, [18] [19] and the upper middle class. [20] It is open even during Ramadan, the month of fasting in Islam. [21]
Sociologist George Ritzer sees MaDonal as part of a trend of other countries developing their own regional variations of McDonald's. [22] [23] Journalist Christopher Hitchens said it was "reassuring" to see signs of progress like MaDonal "in an atmosphere that only a few years ago was heavy with miasmic decay and the reek of poison gas." [24]
Qassab is just one of many who have requested permission to open up a McDonald's in Iraq. [25] [26] Should this happen, there has been speculation by some about whether McDonald's will eventually take legal action against MaDonal. [27] [28] [29] [30] However, MaDonal appears safe for now, as one journalist notes: "The flow of applications to open an Iraqi McDonald's stopped as quickly as it started, and the corporate lawyers never came to Sulaymaniyah." [31] The first McDonald's in Iraq was opened in Baghdad in 2006.[ citation needed] It only served U.S. soldiers at first; another store for Iraqi civilians was opened later.[ citation needed]
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MaDonal | |
---|---|
Restaurant information | |
Owner(s) | Suleiman Qassab |
City | Sulaymaniyah |
Country | Iraq |
MaDonal ( Sorani Kurdish: مادۆنال) is a restaurant located in the city of Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan. It is designed to resemble the fast food chain McDonald's both in appearance and in menu; [1] [2] [3] [4] for instance, MaDonal's menu includes " Big Macks." [5] [6] It is one of two McDonald's-like restaurants in the town; the other one, Matbax, claims that MaDonal is "cheap quality". [7]
The owner, Suleiman Qassab, fought in the Kurdish resistance during the 1970s. He became a refugee in Vienna, Austria, where he got a job as a cook at McDonald's. In the 1990s, he applied for permits to create a McDonald's in Iraq, but the McDonald's Corporation turned him down, due to economic sanctions imposed during the regime of Saddam Hussein, as well as the controlled economy of Iraq at the time. [ citation needed] In response, he established MaDonal Restaurant, which is still in business. [8] Since establishing MaDonal, Qassab has offered free food to U.S. forces, been threatened, [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] and has become a "Kurdish celebrity." [15] Qassab hopes to one day turn MaDonal into an actual McDonald's restaurant. [16] [17]
MaDonal is popular with Sulaymaniyah's youth, [18] [19] and the upper middle class. [20] It is open even during Ramadan, the month of fasting in Islam. [21]
Sociologist George Ritzer sees MaDonal as part of a trend of other countries developing their own regional variations of McDonald's. [22] [23] Journalist Christopher Hitchens said it was "reassuring" to see signs of progress like MaDonal "in an atmosphere that only a few years ago was heavy with miasmic decay and the reek of poison gas." [24]
Qassab is just one of many who have requested permission to open up a McDonald's in Iraq. [25] [26] Should this happen, there has been speculation by some about whether McDonald's will eventually take legal action against MaDonal. [27] [28] [29] [30] However, MaDonal appears safe for now, as one journalist notes: "The flow of applications to open an Iraqi McDonald's stopped as quickly as it started, and the corporate lawyers never came to Sulaymaniyah." [31] The first McDonald's in Iraq was opened in Baghdad in 2006.[ citation needed] It only served U.S. soldiers at first; another store for Iraqi civilians was opened later.[ citation needed]
{{
cite news}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link)