MaDonal

, claims that MaDonal is "cheap quality". [Goodman, Peter S.: "Familiar Logo On Unfamiliar Eateries in Iraq Kurdish Entrepreneurs Bring In a Taste of the West," washingtonpost.com, Monday, May 26, 2003; Page A01: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A38941-2003May25&notFound=true ] The quality of the food has been criticized by some bloggers as well. [Rosebaghdad (2004-09-11). I’m Back (part 1), http://rosebaghdad.blogspot.com/2004/09/im-back-part-1.html ] [Totten, Michael J. (2006-02-28). The Utah of the Middle East, http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001066.html ] [ cite web|url=http://www.aliraqi.org/forums/showpost.php?p=505951&postcount=20 |title=Re: Pictures of my recent trip to Kurdistan |accessdate=2007-03-18 |first=viglen |date=2005-10-25, 11:57 AM |publisher=aliraqi Community ]

The owner, Suleiman Qassab, was a fighter 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. [Goering, Laurie: [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/354965441.html?dids=354965441:354965441&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+5%2C+2003&author=Laurie+Goering%2C+Tribune+foreign+correspondent&pub=Chicago+Tribune&edition=&startpage=1&desc=Kurds+offer+troops+a+holiday+haven+from+rigors+of+Iraq "Kurds offer troops a holiday haven from rigors of Iraq,"] Chicago Tribune, July 5, 2003. Edition: Chicago Final, Section: News, Page: 1. ] [Associated Press and Bloomberg News reports: "McDonald's approached about chains in Iraq," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aug 15, 2003: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4196/is_20030815/ai_n10904655 ] [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=A FAMILIAR LOOKING RESTAURANT IN NORTHERN IRAQ | date=2002-12-26 | publisher= | url =http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/franchises/index.html?query=SULAIMANIYA%20(IRAQ)&field=geo&match=exact | work =NEW YORK TIMES | pages =Section A; Page 22, Column 3, 40 words | accessdate = 2007-03-21 | language = ] In response, he established MaDonal Restaurant, which became a successful business. [Leithead, Alastair: "Kurdistan diary: Day Three," BBC News, January 22, 2004: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3418473.stm ] [cite news | first=Patrick | last=McDonnell | coauthors= | title=Outside Baghdad, Oases of Calm | date=July 20, 2003 | publisher= | url =http://www.defenddemocracy.org/research_topics/research_topics_show.htm?doc_id=184335&attrib_id=7511 | work =The Los Angeles Times | pages = | accessdate = 2007-03-18 | language = ] [cite news | first=Terry | last=McCarthy | coauthors= | title=WHERE THEY DON'T SHOOT AMERICANS | date=March 14, 2007 | publisher= | url =http://blogs.abcnews.com/bizarrebazaar/2007/03/where_they_dont.html | work =ABC News Blogs | pages = | accessdate = 2007-03-18 | language = ] Since establishing MaDonal, Qassab has offered free food to U.S. forces, been threatened by suicide bombers, [Xulamm Kani: "Striving for Cultural Acceptance: the Kurdish Experience," Keynote Address, School of International Training (SIT), Brattleboro, Vermont, August 17, 2004: http://www.kurdistan.org/Current-Updates/sinclair081704.html ] [Rothwell, Nicolas: "Kurdish rebel cooks up Big Mac’s little brother," The Australian, 7/23/2004: http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=5286 ] [Daragahi, Borzou: "Guns And Burgers," CNNMoney.com, May 1, 2003: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/2003/05/01/341305/index.htm ] [Daragahi, Borzou: "Iraqis in north eager to display feelings and enthusiasm for GIs," The Washington Times, April 1, 2003: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-99435041.html ] [Saulnier, John M.: "Time flies, french fries, American pie and haven't we had enough boycotting already?," Quick Frozen Foods International, April 2003, http://www.allbusiness.com/wholesale-trade/merchant-wholesalers-nondurable/542554-2.html ] [cite news | first=Borzou | last=Daragahi | coauthors= | title=In Kurdistan, an abandoned checkpoint | date=March 30, 2003 | publisher= | url =http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:AWNB:ANSB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=10CE598080208820&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated4&req_dat=0D0CB5811D21E575 | work =The Anniston Star | pages = | accessdate = 2007-04-21 | language = ] and has become a "Kurdish celebrity." [cite news | first=Nicolas | last=Rothwell | coauthors= | title=Key piece of Iraq jigsaw wants out of picture | date=July 24, 2004 | publisher= | url =http://www.stewartinnes.com/Assignment-Iraq-3-yawar-visit.html | work =The Weekend Australian | pages =14 | accessdate = 2007-04-24 | language = ] Qassab hopes to one day turn MaDonal into an actual McDonald's restaurant. [Wright, Robin: "Kurdish Enclave May Lead Way for New Iraq," Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2002: http://old.krg.org/docs/articles/robin-LA-times-dec-2001.asp ] [McCarthy, Terry: "Golden Arches With a Twist: Iraqi Burger Joint," ABC News, Aug. 16, 2006: http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2319431&page=1 ]

MaDonal is popular with Sulaymaniyah's youth, [Al-Marashi, Ibrahim: "Battle of flags," Al-Ahram Weekly, June 17 - 23, 2004, Issue No. 695: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/695/re5.htm ] [Rothwell, Nicolas: "Coming To Suleimaniyah?" Critical Tolerance, Jul 22nd, 2004: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:RUiXha47ZxcJ:criticaltolerance.org/story/2004/7/22/214939/476+madonal&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=67&gl=us ] and the upper middle class. [cite news | first=Michael | last=Boag | coauthors= | title=From Iraq with Love: Michael Boag traces his journey from Istanbul to Suleimaniya | date=2003-10-27 | publisher= | url =http://www.mcgilldaily.com/view.php?aid=1886 | work =The McGill Daily | pages = | accessdate = 2007-04-08 | language = ] It is open even during Ramadan. [cite news | first=Micha | last=Odenheimer | coauthors= | title=Such fragile threads | date=2003-11-21 | publisher=WorldSecurityNetwork | url =http://www.worldsecuritynetwork.com/showArticle3.cfm?article_id=8773 | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-06-13 | language = ]

Sociologist George Ritzer sees MaDonal as part of a trend of other countries developing their own regional variations of McDonald’s. [Ritzer, George: “The McDonaldization of Society” (Revised New Century Edition), page 4. Pine Forge Press, 2004. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0761988122&id=JAHhSDKSxz0C&pg=PR11&lpg=PR11&ots=2SIsvk_EuS&dq=madonal&sig=hsH7lH59v7Sbw3lJjlBWI4uqKVo (Limited Preview Available on Google Books)] ] [cite news | first=Riiko | last=Sakkinen | coauthors= | title=Madonaldization | date=2007-05-30 | publisher= | url =http://www.riikosakkinen.com/blog/?show=archive&m=05-2007 | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-06-13 | language = ] 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." [cite news | first=Christopher | last=Hitchens | coauthors= | title=Holiday In Iraq; Over Christmas Break, The Author Took His Son To Northern Iraq, Which The U.S. Had Made A No-Fly Zone In 1991, Ending Saddam's Chemical Genocide. Now Reborn, Iraqi Kurdistan Is A Heartrending Glimpse Of What Might Have Been | date=April 2007 | publisher= | url =http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/04/hitchens200704 | work =Vanity Fair | pages =130 | accessdate = 2007-04-20 | language = ]

Qassab is just one of many who have requested permission to open up a McDonald’s in Iraq. [Hawkes, Steve: “McDonald's swamped by offers to open in Iraq,” Evening Standard (London), Aug 14, 2003: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-2342681.html ] [cite news | first=Herbert | last=Docena | coauthors= | title=Dying for a McDonald's in Iraq | date=October 24, 2003 | publisher= | url =http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EJ24Ak02.html | work =Asia Times | pages = | accessdate = 2007-04-20 | language = ] Should this happen, there has been speculation by some about whether McDonald's will eventually take legal action against MaDonal. [Ritzer, p. xi-xii; http://www.pineforge.com/upm-data/4039_Ritzer_McDonalization_Preface.pdf ] [Sundström, Eric (2005-07-15). "Everyday observations in Iraq," http://ericsundstrom.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_archive.html ] [Scott (2003-05-01). "What's Next -- Kurdish Idol on Fox?" http://dclawstudent.blogspot.com/2003_05_01_dclawstudent_archive.html#94992257 ] [ cite web|url=http://www.netzeitung.de/netblog/241181.html |title=MaDonal und Matbax |accessdate=2007-04-20 |last=Schwan |first=Ben |date=2003-05-27 |work=NETBLOG |publisher=NETZEITUNG |language=German ] 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." [cite news | first=Mark | last=MacKinnon | coauthors= | title=In the shadow of real war, a burger war | date=March 23, 2007 | publisher= | url =http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FLAC.20070323.IBLETTER23%2FTPStory%2FColumnists&ord=22580543&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true | work =The Globe and Mail | pages =B8 | accessdate = 2007-04-20 | language = ]

ee also

* List of Countries with McDonald's franchises
* McDonaldization
* McDowell's

Notes