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Halal
Or Not Halal
From The Arab Voice
Meat considered to be holy to Muslims is sold at higher prices
at Arab and Muslim stores than the same meat available at American
stores. Are Muslims being taken advantage of by members of their
own community?
A Muslim feels better when he eats Halal meat. And he gets irritated
when he pays double for that meat compared to what he can get from
American stores, because he has to believe the vendors without really
knowing where the meat comes from.
Over the past few years, capital investors have seen the Halal
meat business as an opportunity to generate big profits, so they
have opened stores, where the word "Halal" is written
in beautiful Arabic letters. But following our investigation, we
found out that American companies are selling meat to these stores,
which makes us conclude that the meat in question is not in fact
Halal. These stores are everywhere; even Americans are realizing
the profits to be made, so they have opened stores to sell meat
and then write in Arabic the word "Halal".
I am not saying all the meat that Muslims eat is not Halal, but
it appears as though most of these stores are engaging in dubious
activities by providing American meat.
There are two Halal butchers in Jersey City, New Jersey, and based
on our investigation, each ones daily production was discovered:
the first one slaughters thirty to forty animals, and the second,
which has less capacity, slaughters around twenty. That means the
total number of butchered animals in these two places reaches an
average of sixty each day. If the meat is distributed to the three
hundred Arab stores that sell Halal meat in New Jersey (or at least
in places where Muslim and Arab people live), each store can only
have 3 kilos (6.5 pounds) of this meat. Thus, these stores are getting
half of a slaughtered animal from the two butchers, and then proceed
to sell two to three animals. So, where did the rest come from?
Logically, it appears as though the owners of these stores are
swindling Muslims in the area, especially armed with the knowledge
that most of the meat comes from Argentina and Latin America. And
there is a certificate given to the importer saying that Sheik "X"
from the Saudi embassy or other embassies prayed on this meat to
make it "Halal". But who is this sheik exactly? His name
has been used as a lie to sell the Muslim community this meat.
This articles objective is not to shut down any businesses,
but rather place the issue under closer examination, drawing attention
to the fact that the Arab and Islamic community is being taken advantage
of. We are also not asking people to boycott these stores, but rather
attempting to differentiate between two things: If one wishes to
buy the American meat from a supermarket, and one finds that this
meat is well cleaned and covered properly, then one should do so.
But if one wishes to get the Halal meat from an Arab store, one
has to buy it with its fat, bones, and expensive price, which can
end up being twice as much as the American meat, even though the
source may be the same. I am not saying that all the Halal stores
oblige one to buy the meat without cleaning it. On the contrary,
they provide the meat that one asks for, but they raise the price
and one has to accept it.
The price of one pound of Halal meat can reach $4.5 dollars, while
regular meat is sold at $2 dollars in American store. This means
that one is paying twice for the same meat, which according to our
investigation lets us know that these profits go directly to the
pockets of greedy Arab and Muslim stores owners.
Translated from Arabic by Elias Saber
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