KUALA LUMPUR: McDonald's Malaysia has filed a police report against more than 20 individuals and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for spreading lies and slander and calling for the boycott of the franchise.
The calls for boycott came following the recognition by United States president Donald Trump that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
The report was lodged in response to claims that McDonald's Malaysia was a direct contributor to the political conflict.
Managing director and operating partner of Gerbang Alaf Restaurants Sdn Bhd,
Azmir Jaafar, said they have also filed a report with the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission as the claims and slander were sourced online.
"The claims coming from these parties that say McDonald's Malaysia contributes a fund to Israel is a false and slanderous accusation.
"Gerbang Alaf Restaurants Sdn Bhd is a locally-owned company run by a Muslim individual as its biggest shareholder.
"As a company, we do not contribute, support or are involved in any political or religious conflicts anywhere in the world," he said in a special press conference this morning.
Azmir said McDonald's Malaysia had also released a statement on Dec 8 saying they did not support the conflict.
Even though the statement was widely published and shared, Azmir said, some individuals were still bent on calling for a nationwide boycott on the restaurant.
"We are doing this as a preventive measure before anything bad happens. We are preserving the safety and livelihood of our 12,000 employees and 4,000 more indirect employees associated with us.
"There have been reports of harassment from our employees after Trump made the announcement."
One of the claims circulating online and via WhatsApp is that McDonald's Malaysia contributed to the Israel-Palestine conflict via funds to the Jewish United Fund (JUF) through the Matching Gift programme.
Azmir clarified that McDonald's Malaysia is not involved in the programme nor have they contributed anything to JUF as it is a US-based welfare group.
The only contribution paid by Gerbang Alaf is the royalty to McDonald's Corporation.
He added that they have also approached the Federal Territory mufti's office to seek clarification on the religious viewpoint that it is supposedly 'compulsory' (wajib) to boycott eating at McDonald's.
The mufti's office said it was only compulsory to boycott a particular company if and only if the leaders of the country gave a direct order to do so.
In this instance, seeing that there are no direct contributions by McDonald's Malaysia towards the conflict, no such order has been made, thus the compulsion to boycott the restaurant is completely unfounded.
"The mufti's office also said boycotting without valid facts can be regarded as slandering in Islam.
"McDonald's Malaysia also have the right to claim compensations from the parties who have contributed to the boycott.
"McDonald's stresses that it contributes greatly to the country via taxes, investments, welfare programmes and thousands of jobs throughout its 35 years of operating in Malaysia."
