“For decades we conformed because we really didn't have much choice when it came to meeting Islamic dietary needs,” said Chaudry.

CAIRO, May 2, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The halal food industry is booming in the United States with stores and restaurants conforming with the Islamic cuisine becoming ubiquitous, a leading US daily reported on Monday, May 2.

“For decades we conformed because we really didn't have much choice” when it came to meeting Islamic dietary needs, Muhammad Chaudry, president of the Chicago-based Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America, told the Washington Post.

“That's changing,” he added.

Nowadays, more than 140 of Washington’s restaurants and grocery stores advertise themselves as halal, according to Zabihah.com, a Web site that posts reviews of halal food establishments across the US.

Having no options at the time, many Muslims now recall how they had to slaughter their own chickens and lambs when they arrived in the US decades ago. Today, they have become choosy.

There is no scientific count of Muslims in the US but the commonly cited figure is six to seven million, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIRO).

Under Islam, Muslims should only eat meat from livestock slaughtered by a sharp knife from their necks, and the name of Allah, the Arabic word for God, must be mentioned.

Halal Pizza

Popular food selling briskly in the US like pizza and burgers are also being served with halal meet.

Pizza Roma in College Park serves pizzas with halal meat toppings, and Double A Burgers & Shakes in Springfield Mall offers “homemade, halal burgers hot off the grill.”

Even the White House does its part, ordering halal for visiting Muslim dignitaries.

Lebanese-born Imad Rababe, who sells halal food at his Hamzah Slaughter House LLC in Williamsport, says he slaughters 500 to 700 animals a week for his wholesale and retail customers.

“Look, I'm not from Harvard. I have no high school education, no nothing,” he told the paper.

“But this is the business I know best. It serves the Muslim community, and it makes me financially comfortable.”

In the past, Mohammad Abdul-Mateen Chida, owner of Halalco Supermarket in Virginia, had to slaughter cattle in Baltimore, goats and lambs in Manassas, and chickens near Frederick. And it wasn't an easy sell.

“Now there are so many places I trust to do these things for me,” he said.

Costly Business 

But the halal business is still a bit costly as the time involved and the labor-intensive requirements boost the price of meat, said Jim Williams of Midamar Corp., a Muslim-owned halal meat company in Iowa.

“The plants doing [Jewish] kosher or halal slaughter have to get a premium for their meat because they can't slaughter as many animals in a day,” he told the paper.

Williams explained that the four companies that slaughter 80 percent of federally inspected cattle in the country -- Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., Excel Corp., Swift & Co. and National Beef Packing Co. -- do not do religious slaughter.

The halal slaughtering, he added, is more expensive than the mass-produced beef slaughtered by the conventional “stun and stick” method.

Add to that, the cost of hiring a company to certify meat as halal.

Cheat

But like every flourishing business, the halal industry is subject to fraudulence.

Some states, like California and New Jersey, have enacted laws fining anyone who sells or advertises meat as halal when it is not.

In 1997, the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service fined Washington Lamb Inc. in Springfield $15,000 for fraudulently mislabeling and selling ordinary meats as halal.

Part of the problem is that there is no standard authority to certify halal meat and poultry, the paper said.

Slaughterhouses that sell halal meat are inspected by the Agriculture Department, but the agency oversees only food safety issues.

“It's a very sensitive topic, and there are many issues that need to be resolved,” said Habib Ghanim, president of the USA Halal Chamber of Commerce.

“The final responsibility is on the person selling it who claims it to be halal. Ultimately, it is between him and his creator.”

Malaysian bi-monthly magazine, The Halal Journal, was launched in February as the first trade and business publication serving the global halal marketplace.

It provides information and updates on the global halal market and covers all aspects of the industry, from food, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology to banking.