Mohammad Sherzad, the avuncular imam, said that Allah provided enough chicken to go around. The Koran, he noted, gives its blessing to Muslims eating chicken, as long as it is slaughtered in accordance with Islamic dietary laws.

According to local lore, Zia Taeb, who came to New York from Kabul in 1972, opened the first Kennedy Fried Chicken three years later on Nostrand Avenue in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. The outlet and its red-and-white logo, which many confused with Kentucky Fried Chicken, quickly prospered, helping him earn the nickname Zia Morgh, or “Zia Chicken” in Dari, a language spoken in Afghanistan. It also attracted the notice of Kentucky Fried Chicken, which sued Kennedy for trademark infringement in 1990 in a New York federal court  and won  before changing its name to KFC the next year, which muted the dispute. “I didn’t speak much English then, but it was easy to see that you could make money,” Mr. Taeb said, recalling his first days in New York. “The price of chicken was inexpensive and stable, and anyone could work behind the counter.”

The same way Korean bodegas, Greek diners and Indian-owned gas stations exploded, Mr. Taeb’s foray into the chicken business had a ripple effect: Afghan immigrants who worked at his six Kennedy outlets soon opened up their own outposts with names like Crown Fried Chicken, Royal Fried Chicken and Mamma’s Fried Chicken. Or, Kennedy copycats: a quarter-century later, more than 200 such places, in nine states and Canada and England, are listed on kennedyfriedchicken.com.

Reached by phone in San Diego, where he has long since retired from the chicken business, Mr. Taeb, who now exports precious stones to China, said he had chosen the Kennedy name “because Afghans are fond of the former president.” And he insisted that he  not Mr. Haye  was the rightful owner of the Kennedy brand. “He won’t win because I know my people, and Afghans will never pay him,” he said. “I will go after him.”

Mr. Haye, who bought his first fried chicken place after a seven-month apprenticeship at a Kennedy outlet in Queens, conceded that Zia Morgh was a poultry pioneer. But he sees himself as the reigning chicken king.