CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France, 3 August 2005 — The alphabet soup of fast food in France has a new addition — BKM or Burger King Muslim, which hopes to rival “McDo”, Quick and KFC with a gut appeal to the country’s large Muslim minority.
Young female employees face no ban on wearing the Islamic veils outlawed in French schools as they serve up burgers that would be off-limits for a religious crowd at competitors Quick or McDonald’s.
Though “Muslim” fast food abounds in France with endless street-side schwarma shops selling sliced-meat sandwiches or kebabs, Burger King Muslim is the first to clone the set-up and decor of American-style fast food joints so popular among French youth. And not without humor.
The name is a play on both the huge American chain as well as the French slang word “beur”, which means second generation North Africans living in France.
The first — and only — shop so far opened its doors last month in Clichy-sous-Bois, a Paris suburb of just over 28,000 where 50 percent of the population is under 25 and one-quarter of the wage earners in each household have no job, according to the city’s website.
Like many working-class districts on the capital’s northern rim, it has a heavy concentration of immigrants and first and second generation Muslims from France’s former colonies.
Its “cities”, the French euphemism for subsidized low-income housing developments, are prey to the crime and social trouble that comes with unemployment rates more than double the national level. Which is another reason it was targeted by BKM creators.
Project manager Mourad Benhamida said BKM breathed new life into the neighborhood by creating 28 jobs. And for “most of the employees it ended a long period of unemployment.”
“The restaurant is open to everyone, but in this neighborhood and nearby towns there is a strong demand by Muslims who are limited to choosing ‘fish filets’ in other fast food restaurants,” said Benhamida.
Strategically placed about 200 meters (yards) from a McDonald’s and 100 meters from a vocational high school that pours out hungry students each day, Burger King Muslim sports a yellow neon sign as hard to miss as that of its rival down the road.
Inside is just as flashy with multi-color walls, crisp new benches, children’s boxed menus with toys and a kids’ play area at the back.
The menu, like McDonald’s, is lit up on the wall behind the cash registers but the usual coke, fries, donuts and ice cream sundaes come with another set of puns.
Customers can order “halal beef”—a beef burger made with halal meat, or meat prepared according to Muslim ritual, “double koull cheese”—”koull means “eat” in Arabic, or “koull filet”.
“We buy meat from a local supplier and it’s prepared according to halal rites. And we verify the origin and content of all foods to make sure there is no alcohol or animal fat mixed in with the sauces or other ingredients,” said a technical counselor who only gave his name as Hakim.
BKM’s originators said they hope to create a franchise and set up Burger King Muslims all around France—whose five million Muslims represent eight percent of the country’s overall population.
“This is a challenge,” said Hakim. “Today young people in these suburbs have trouble finding work and this restaurant will allow hiring people who have no diplomas or are looking for apartments,” he said.
Clients so far are delighted. “I came to see if it’s as good as KFC,” the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise, joked Karim Benhamidi, 31.
But Leila Bekhti, whose brother was hired as a BKM manager, had a post 9/11 take on the initiative.
“The idea is also to open people’s minds,” she said.
“Muslims have a very negative image at the moment with what’s happening in the world. This place can be a meeting place for youth, and that’s good.”
