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Thursday, February 25, 2010

How Halal Restaurants Abide Islamic Dietary Laws

/ On : 2:49 AM

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By Tristan West

Many of us have encountered the term "halal," but not many of us know what it stands for. Halal can be seen on food labels and eateries. The term is significant for our Muslim brothers and sisters because it indicates what is allowed for them to consume by their Islamic dietary law. In a nation with inhabitants of different religions, the word halal is very important.

Muslims in Islamic nations don't have troubles eating in halal eateries and picking up halal products as most likely than not, they are halal-certified. But for those who are in areas that have mixed religious groups, the term is not as rampant as they would like. Good thing that more establishments are now becoming aware of their customer's preferences.

Halal means lawful or legal. If a food tag has this word on or a eatery claims they are halal-certified, it means that the preparation of their products is in accordance with the Islamic dietary law, and therefore, they are allowed to consume the items.

Just what are allowed in Islamic law? For meat products, the manner in which an animal should be slaughtered must be swift. When slaughtering an animal, its windpipe and gullet must be cut and done rapidly.

And because there are halal or allowed items, there are also haraam or prohibited products. To start with, Muslims are forbidden to feed on pork and drink intoxicants. So a product or an eatery must not use those ingredients to their menu. There should also be no contamination of the items, meaning, if a utensil has been used to prepare a pork meal, it should not be utilized any longer to prepare a halal-approved item.

Haraam items also comprise of blood, birds of prey or carnivores, animals slaughtered in the name of any god but Allah, corpse of an animal, or those that have been consecrated to another deity.

There are Muslim groups who declare food products as halal and give halal certification to establishments. Products that have halal authentication are the ingredients used by halal restaurants to make sure that they observe the Islamic dietary law carefully.

It's good to know that there are restaurants not run by Muslims that still make a great effort to adhere to Islamic dietary laws. It just means that they value all their customers and honor their preferences and religious beliefs. - 24553

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