What do you think a Halal diet is?

[Lakemonster]

Since getting into hookah, I have had more contact with the world of Islam. I have ended up doing a bit of shopping in what I call "Arabic" markets in the DFW area.
 
I noticed that the meat carried in these markets is is advertised as "Halal". My first assumptions were not so far off.... that these meats were slaughtered and butchered in a "clean" fashion.... I equated it to Kosher laws of Judaism.
 
Since birth, I hve eaten a "kosher" diet. I am a Christian who's family followed the laws of Moses when it came to eating of meat. Basically not eating of any flesh that has died of its own accord.... no swine..... no water fowl, no catfish or shellfish, shrimp......... no birds of prey.
 
It basically boils down to: I dont eat any land dwelling animal unless it has a split hoof AND chews cud. I do not eat any water dewelling creature unless it has both fins and scales. Hten theres the water fowl and pirds of prey.
 
there was a lapse when I ate everything under the sun..... and I have to admit.... the weirdest of all dishes were the best. Frog legs and alligator tail....... crawfish..... all very tastey.
 
I returned to a "clean" meat diet recently in efforts to persue a more healthy lifestyle. Half of my meals are actually vegetarian..... and some of those are vegan in the strictest sense.
 
...... but I digress.....
 
I went around the net looking for exact meanings of a Halal diet. Basically I got two different takes on the matter that seem polarized.
 
1. Simply what the Quran says..... (or seems to say....been a while since I read the Quran) No eating of flesh that has perished of its own...... no eating of swine.
 
2. Some escalated version that seems to limit other meats and has some sort of slaughter and buthering regulations. I dont understand it... and I got nothing definitive.
 
So I really end up having more questions about "halal" than I did when I first encountered the word.
 
Could someone shed some light on the matter about what this is and about the two stances I have seen?

[Brad]

I've been wondering what it means too. The local Middle Eastern market in town, Open Sesame, has stuff marked "halal" and the door says "we serve halal food".P.S. - I loved that movie (your avatar).

[Barnzy02]

if you just type in halal on wikipedia there is pretty good descriptions of the guidelines. which go something along the lines of:no pork, blood, carrion(carcas of a dead animal), no fanged animals, no intoxicants. seafood is where there is some controversy. all fish with scales are considered halal. but sunni and shia have differing views on all fish. frogs are haram(forbidden), along with fish that were found dead. and some believe that sea creatures that resemble halal land creatures are halal.and they say that anything slaughtered other than in the name of allah are forbidden.

[Sonthert]

Frog is really good, catfish is good, lobster is good, pork ribs are good. Buffalo's good. I hear horse is good, but I've never tried it. I don't care much for crawfish, unfortunately. I just want to point out, there is little, real scientific evidence that kosher/halal diets are better...they are religious superstitions. As are split hoof, cud-chewing, non-shellfish stuff. Religious gobbledy-gook.Trichinosis (pigs mainly) was a valid concern in a time long ago. We have the ability to cook our meat thoroughly and we have controlled trichinosis largely by disregarding religion and scientifically studying the problem. Pigs aren't something god disfavored and now they are inherently dirty and make us sick as was believed, the illness comes from a round worm, Trichinella Spiralis that lives predominantly in the ground. When animals eat off the ground, they have the potential to get infected. We eat undercooked pork, we get sick. They now feed commercial pigs from troughs, off the ground...and no more slop piles in commercial pork products. [url="http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5206a1.htm"]http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5206a1.htm[/url][url="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trichinosis/default.htm"]http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/tr...sis/default.htm[/url]12 cases of commercial pork trichinosis in 5 years (1997-2001), not a significant health threat. In 1997 alone, our good friend, halal/kosher friendly chicken produced over 36000 cases of salmonella. Granted chicken is more prevalant, but not 3000 times as much as pork (to explain the factor of 3000 between the illnesses).Maybe some of things that are religiously prohibited are perfectly tasty and no worse than religiously approved foods...perhaps even safer.

[loanshark]

Vincent: Want some bacon? Jules: No man, I don't eat pork. Vincent: Are you Jewish? Jules: Nah, I ain't Jewish, I just don't dig on swine, that's all. Vincent: Why not? Jules: Pigs are filthy animals. I don't eat filthy animals. Vincent: Bacon tastes gooood. Pork chops taste gooood. Jules: Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know 'cause I wouldn't eat the filthy motherfucker. Pigs sleep and root in shit. That's a filthy animal. I ain't eat nothin' that ain't got enough sense enough to disregard its own faeces. Vincent: How about a dog? Dogs eats its own feces. Jules: I don't eat dog either. Vincent: Yeah, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal? Jules: I wouldn't go so far as to call a dog filthy but they're definitely dirty. But, a dog's got personality. Personality goes a long way. Vincent: Ah, so by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filthy animal. Is that true? Jules: Well we'd have to be talkin' about one charmin' motherfuckin' pig. I mean he'd have to be ten times more charmin' than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I'm sayin'?I love that movie.No offence to anyone Tangiers post made me think of it.

[Joe.lipinski]

I am studying to convert to Judaism, so I have been eating no pork (not even gum really (has gluten... made from pig fat)). I have been eating a lot of vegetarian food because of animal rights... I feel bad for the animals that are slaughtered in a inhumane manor and right now I can't really get kosher meat (which by the way is slaughtered in a humane manor). Halal is similar to a kosher diet, but differs. Some opinions even say that if a muslim cannot find food that is Halal, (s)he can eat food, certified kosher.

[ghostofdavid]

In an effort of ecumenical appreciation, gluten comes from wheat and not any animal product (although, it can be used and combined with other ingredients to make it leavened wheat). Some gum does contain gelatin I imagine, and thus can be listed as non-kosher or “halal” if it comes from any animal other than bovine or if it is used in conjuncture with bovine and milk products. I work for Kroger/Ralphs/Frys/Fred Meyer/Smiths/QFC/Food For Less and get gluten questions around 50 times a day. I can't answer them for liability, but I can answer them if the dietician forwards on the answer to me.Joe, what part of the country do you live in? I would love to partake of the nargila and discuss theology and like-minded topics.Lakemonster: Were you a part of the Way International or Seventh Day Adventists? Tangiers: Science would show us that the ancient person who had no knowledge of germs, parasites, and food-borne illness could easily get sick from pork. It is the only meat that I am aware of that spoils in the most stable of environments. For example, it will rot when put in a deep frozen environment. To the modern American, pork represents very little problem. Other than the Pulp Fiction diet of what pigs eat and how dirty they are as a creature, say, compared to something with a more an innocuous diet like a cow’s natural diet. You know, before they started feeding the cows their old and sick relatives.

[Lakemonster]

Ghost of David,SDA. Not now. I dont fly flags anymore.Is'nt Pork a fattier meat as well? MD's will still pull you off of pork if they see a need to change dietary behavior for heart disease and cholesterol probs.

[loanshark]

[quote name='Joe.lipinski']I am studying to convert to Judaism, so I have been eating no pork (not even gum really (has gluten... made from pig fat)). I have been eating a lot of vegetarian food because of animal rights... I feel bad for the animals that are slaughtered in a inhumane manor and right now I can't really get kosher meat (which by the way is slaughtered in a humane manor). Halal is similar to a kosher diet, but differs. Some opinions even say that if a muslim cannot find food that is Halal, (s)he can eat food, certified kosher.[/quote] I think a bolt to the head is more humane then the Kosher way of using a large knife and riping out the windpipe. PITA had a link off their website showing the process. I am not saying all are done this way but it was very disturbing.

[Sonthert]

Yes, but the rules about eating cloven hoved, cud chewing shellfish or whatever is superstition, thats all I was saying. There was no understanding of parasitology or microbiology, but someone who got sick from eating pork was though to be a plague of God. It became attributed to eating pigs and then it turned into a belief that god didn't want people eating pigs and unexplained occurences were explained by further religious and superstitious explainations. All those rules regarding what to eat and what not to eat are silly, and in many cases contradictory to what is safer and healthier for people.

[PersianPride]

If you want a simply answer basically it means the animal, has been killed by a shift cut of its jugular vein using a non serrated knife. What that does is remove a substantial portion of the blood from the animal before it is cut up into the various portions. As opposed to non halal and kosher methods which start cutting the animal while it is still full of blood.Then there is also the other stuff like a cleric being present to supervise the butcher and also pray for the animal. It differs from the kosher rules in that the Jews actually inspect the animals vital organs(i.e. the liver) for signs of disease as well as bleeding it.