In recent years we’ve subscribed to a food delivery service called Hungryroot. Like many companies these days, they have what is called an online community on Facebook. Normally this is a place where people share recipe ideas, their favorite menu items, and/or ask questions.
The other day we had what felt like an anonymous troll visit.
There were a variety of responses. Most were of the, “Why did you think this post was necessary?” variety. I decided to go the innocently cheery route.
Good to know! Now I can feel comfortable recommending Hungry Root to my Muslim friends.
I was much disturbed by the person who responded with the 🤮 emoji.
I wondered what that commenter was thinking. I wondered if they even knew what halal meant.
Our old friend Google told me what people are asking when it comes to “halal.” Here’s the top ten for two searches.
Two thoughts: 1) good for people who made the effort to try to find out what it really means. 2) Cruel? Lucifer? Where does that come from?
As a non-Muslim, I found this article from WebMD to be a helpful introduction.
What is Halal? Written by Amber Felton, Alyson Powell Key Medically Reviewed by Zilpah Sheikh, MD
Halal isn’t just about what food you eat but also how animals are treated during butchering. The process requires minimal suffering for the animal and reciting God's name as the animal is sacrificed.
If you know of a better introduction to halal - - specifically dietary requirements - - please let me know.
As I did more research last night it struck me that there are many similarities to keeping kosher in Judaism. For me, the practices are something to be curious about and to learn about. They are not cause for alarm or disgust.
I feel as though the idea of kosher foods is far more widely known in the U.S. than halal is. Plenty of non-Jews enjoy eating at kosher delis and would have no difficulty buying food at the grocery that was labeled “kosher for Passover”, for instance.
That probably wasn’t always the case. Was there a time when exposure to the ideas of keeping kosher would have provoked alarm and disgust in America? Sadly, I imagine that there was. Jews in this country have a long history of being treated as the other: demonized and ostracized.
Time has not erased this but the long exposure of non-Jews to Jewish culture has made a difference. When we cross over the abyss of ignorance and learn to know our neighbor, fear begins to lose its power.
Fear is born in ignorance and thrives in ignorance. Fear tells us that those who are different may do us harm, or that their very different-ness is a rejection of/an assault on who we are. Their diffent-ness makes us less safe.
It’s no surprise that people and institutions who trade in the business of fear do their work by attacking learning and knowledge: education, libraries, a free and independent press, freedom of expression, cultural and racial diversity…
In such an environment a simple word like halal evokes horror. It might be an invitation to learn.
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