The owner of a Windsor restaurant is defending the meat it uses.
A complaint via Facebook accused Tabouli by Eddy's restaurant in Tecumseh of supporting ISIS because it uses halal meat.
Restaurant Owner Eddy Hammoud, who also owns Eddy's Mediterranean Bistro, says halal meat is meat that is blessed and the animal is killed quickly to reduce its pain.
Hammoud says it gets its meat from local butchers and he has no association with terrorism.
He says people need to be educated on what halal meat means.
"Thanks is given to the animal, the animal is killed by itself not in front of animals," he says. "It is killed in a certain way that is going to cause the least amount of harm to the animal, in terms of killing it the fastest, so it doesn't go through much pain."
Hammoud says just because he uses Halal meat, does not mean he is associated with a terrorist group.
"We are paying for the meat that is made in Canada. When did Isis have a hand in what is being used in Canada. It doesn't make sense to me logically."
Hammoud says if the customer at its Tecumseh location had requested non-halal meat, he would have done his best to accommodate him.
Since the complaint was posted on Monday, Hammoud says he has received some feedback, and most of it is positive.
The person who complained, Tim Willms, declined an interview but told CTV Windsor he feels the entire situation has been “blown out of proportion.”
“I read it over and, in haste, I probably put more than I should have,” said Willms.
Despite altering his original review, the Essex County resident stands by what was written.
“I believe everything I wrote,” says Willms. “I went into a restaurant and I believe my religious rights were violated.”
Willms says he and his family were upset non-halal options weren’t available except for vegetables – adding his review was meant to highlight the lack of non-halal choices and his opposition to the slaughtering method.