A Kentucky Fried Chicken copycat restaurant that opened its doors in Tehran Sunday was shut down after less than 24 hours in business because it was deemed to promote “American influence into Iranian culture.”

Abbas Pazuki opened “Halal KFC” in West Tehran Sunday evening with the approval of the Iranian government, and posted several pictures online of a lot of customers trying out its special, Islam-compliant chicken.

But by Tuesday, customers found a note from Iranian police tagged to the door announcing Halal KFC is “closed until further notice” because the store looks too much like the American flag, which “can be seen as a part of American influence into Iranian culture,” according to reports from the Iranian news agency Tasnim cited by Mashable.

“The U.S. is one of Iran’s major enemies and this will have grave dangers for the country,” according to Tasnim, which described the restaurant as “the first American branch” in the country.

But Pazuki contends Halal KFC is not associated with the U.S. company owned by Yum! Brands – despite a huge picture of Colonel Sanders used in its marketing – and alleges the lookalike company competes with the American fast food giant.

“The shutting down of Halal KFC was due to a misunderstanding,” Pazuki said. “We are part of a brand known as Halal KFC, which comes from Turkey. It belongs to Muslims and its target market is Muslim countries.”

Iranian chamber of commerce official Ali Fazeli confirmed the Tehran KFC is not connected to the U.S.-based KFC.

“In accordance with orders from the Supreme Leader, we do not give any authorization to Western brands” of fast food, he told the Iranian News Labor Agency, according to Fox News.

Multiple media outlets report the issue of American influence in Iran is a touchy subject, especially since many “hardliners” view the recent nuclear deal as bending to western influences, which is “behavior contrary to Islamic-Iranian culture and traditions,” Mashable reports.

According to Fox News, “The recent nuclear weapons agreement reached between Iran and several Western countries has been seen as a potential gateway by some businesses to gain entry to Iran. But Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, has called the establishment of Western style fast food restaurants ‘a red line that would not be crossed.’”

The Tehran Halal KFC episode comes less than two months after a real KFC restaurant in Liverpool, England was busted for selling chicken as halal when it really wasn’t, the Mirror reports.

KFC officials fired three employees after conducting an internal investigation into claims its Edge Lane store ran out of halal chicken during a busy holiday weekend and simply borrowed non-halal chicken from another store and passed it off as halal.

Company officials apologized profusely for the debacle, and vowed to ensure patrons the branch will serve only 100 percent halal chicken from now on.

“It’s morally wrong and horrible,” a source told the Liverpool Echo. “It happened over the weekend when the Liverpool International Music Festival was on. They ran out of halal products because they were so busy.”

The store’s mostly Muslim customers noticed their food wasn’t halal right away, according to the unnamed source.

“These people pay for a product and they expect it to be what it says,” the source said. “It’s not a mistake, these people got the chicken and knew it wasn’t halal.”

Halal food is prepared in compliance with Islamic Shari’ah law, which means the animal must be slaughtered by a Muslim who proceeds the act with prayers and chants to Allah. The animal then must be killed by slicing its throat with a sharp knife – severing the windpipe and blood vessels but not the spinal chord – and drained of all its blood, according to Wikipedia.