By ELEANOR BLACK and ANGELA GREGORY
A Muslim family who found bacon in a vegetarian pizza from Pizza Haven want the company to pay for them to go to Mecca.
Mohammed Sameem, a Hastings dairy owner, is angry and has hired a lawyer because five members of his family were exposed
to bacon, a forbidden food for Muslims.
They had ordered two vegetarian pizzas, two cheese pizzas and two loaves of garlic bread from the Hastings branch.
Mr Sameem said Muslims were not allowed within 40m of pigs or pork products and the family were horrified when his mother bit into a piece of bacon under some cheese on her slice.
Yesterday, the Pizza Haven national operations manager, Colin Mellar, apologised to Mr Sameem and offered him free pizza, but the devout Muslim said he wanted to be reimbursed for the family's trip to Saudi Arabia next April when they will spend 40 days being cleansed.
"That is the only place that we can go to ask forgiveness.
"I have committed a big sin ... I would rather die than eat a pig."
Mr Sameem said he prayed five times a day and refused to sell bacon, ham or pork products at his dairy.
He was unable to go to a mosque for the next 40 days, until the bacon had left his body.
Islamic spokesmen in New Zealand were last night divided on how serious the problem was.
The president of the South Auckland Muslim Association, Mohammed Faruk Usman Ali Khan, said eating bacon was extremely serious. He said whatever punishment was fitting was a complicated matter that would be up to a Muslim priest.
But a spokesman for the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ believes prayer would cleanse the Sameem family.
Federation secretary-general Shafiq Khan said it was the lifetime ambition of all Muslims to get to Mecca, where all their past sins are forgiven.
But in this case, he thought prayer would be sufficient to right the wrong.
