To serve these foods to muslim friends

[MissMildred]

Hi - posting here for traffic but also because I don't want to BU. I invited some new school friends and their parents for a bbq in a couple of weeks and two of the families are muslim and mentioned they only eat halal.
I want to make an effort to make them feel comfortable, and it has also been very interesting learning all about what is halal or haram. Obviously no pork will be served. However, some of the guidance on the internet is not clear, so I wondered if anyone with this diet could help me with these items and whether it would BU to serve them up:

Vinegar - if I served this in eg. a coleslaw, are all types of vinegar fine? (Eg is the vinegar not seen as alcohol anymore?)
Butter - Am I overthinking this? Would you eat butter?
Alcohol - I know you wouldn't drink this, but is it acceptable for others in the group to be drinking a glass of wine?
Halloumi - I can't figure out if this is okay or not.

Also - any tips you might have would be great, especially if there are brands of crisps, bread, butter etc....you might use.

Thank you!

Why should they? Killed meat is killed meat. If it means they need halal meat for their religious beliefs, but you (general you) don't have any religious beliefs, why should they serve non halal?
Eat vegetarian for once.

Because why should I eat meat that is killed in a way I disagree with and has had a prayer said over it related to a religion I am not part of!! Double standards to expect people to cater for one religion but no consideration for people do fundamentally disagree with it.

Every single thread that mentions halal on here ends up in some kind of bunfight about whether people would or wouldn't eat halal meat and stunned and barbarism.

Cool your jets. Don't derail the OPs thread

"Bertrand you are wrong - I wish you were right"
I am right.

@BertrandRussell Erm....... Are you actually kidding???? Halal meat is when they do not stun the animal before killing and they slash their necks before hanging them upside down and letting them bleed to death....

Bertrand is right, hasn't there been a huge hoo haa about this recently and pretty much every supermarket in the UK sold halal meat as their main meat.

OP You've been given some great advice. I'd make some a huge green salad, a cous cous and veg salad and a potato salad. Roast vegetables are also easy to do and filling.

Nope. That's kosher. Most halal meat is killed in exactly the same way as non halal meat, just with a prayer said over it.

Powerless,

The animal is not hung upside down to bleed to death. Once it is dead, then it gets hung upside down to drain the blood from the carcass.

Bertrand is right

As above let your other guests know,I would never eat halal meat as I don't agree with it

Bollocks. If any of the above actualy gave a shit about animal welfare they'd be vegan ask their hosts about the meat in the first place.

WHy would any of you assume it's not bare bones shitty meat from a crappy farm, do people assume every bbq they attend is only serving meat from animals who died mid massage while drinking organic smoothies?

powerless most halal meat is stunned first. Kosher meat cannot be kosher if it has been stunned. Most supermarket meat is halal. In fact, most UK meat is halal - stunned halal.

To the I would never eat halal meat as I don't agree with it brigade, curious to know if you have ever eaten at Nando's, Pizza Express, Greggs, KFC, Subway?

ecause why should I eat meat that is killed in a way I disagree with and has had a prayer said over it related to a religion I am not part of!! Double standards to expect people to cater for one religion but no consideration for people do fundamentally disagree with it.

What belief system do you have that is offended by meat you eat having had a prayer said over it, and why?

Why would anyone care that someone said words in front of dinner if they don't believe the words have any true meaning?

At the start of this thread people were quoting % of stunned meat being approx 80-85%. So how can I as a non-Muslim, vegetarian, find out about who is selling the remaining 15-20% of non-stunned halal meat? So that I can absolutely avoid it for my family and friends at all costs,

I am really prepared to support food choices of all sorts, exactly as the OP is doing, but I do have a line.

Thanks op for this thread. You sound very thoughtful.

@greenlanes it's difficult as there is no law that states halal meat must be labelled as far as I am aware; it's usually only labelled in the halal and kosher sections.

We often cater for Muslim (and sometimes Jewish) friends but as DH doesn't eat meat and DS is a vegetarian which makes life a lot simpler when catering for most religious based dietary restrictions.

I do find that both types of friends find vegetarian food slightly unsatisfying though (not that I blame them

For those questioning the welfare of halal meat do you actually think non halal animals live a heavenly life before they're killed? U.K.s welfare standards are higher than most countries but that doesn't mean the animals live lovely happy lives by any means.
An animal has been killed for our consumption, whether its had a prayer said over it or not shouldn't make any difference.

Don't give them pork and alcohol and it should be fine.

I'd have no issue with eating Halal meat (well I do, but no more of one than I do in eating any meat. And I do eat mean. So I'm a hypocrite regardless and whether a given slaughter method is cruel, more cruel or really cruel is fairly immaterial).

I'm really surprised to hear that 'most' meat sold in the UK is Halal though? Why? The Islamic population of the UK is, I think, 2.5%. So restaurants and supermarkets being automatically Halal is a bit like all flour, bread and pasta sold being automatically gluten free or all icecream being made with soy milk. And what about Kosher? Is that harder/less ethical to provide? Because, if not, you could say that (especially in certain demographics) some restuarants/shops should pick automatically kosher instead of halal. It just seems a bit niche.

The vast majority of non halal animals pre slaughter ate kept in absolutely abhorrent condition anyway so the faux concern about welfare is tosh.

You’ve had some great advice, as others have said pre-warn about alcohol being served, though I imagine they would be fine, and cook halal meat on a separate bbq to non halal (and veggie separately).

greenlanes any kosher meat will not be stunned. That accounts for a large portion of UK unstunned meat (it's actually 90% of UK meat that is stunned, not just 90% of halal meat).

The rest, is usually sold in specialist Islamic butchers. Only a tiny minority of meat in general supply is unstunned. But is virtually impossible to say where it comes from.

Please also remember that imported meat isn't necessarily stunned, whether it is halal or not.

As for desert if you can get vegetarian jelly that is suitable for halal as it doesn't contain gelatin.

@manicinsomniac Kosher meat cannot be stunned, and only certain abattoir can produce it (because they ONLY produce kosher meat). It is therefore more expensive and harder to source.

Halal meat is usually stunned. Most abattoirs in the UK are certified halal. And all meat needs to be considered halal is that the abattoir is certified and a prayer is said as the animals are slaughtered, this is by a recording being played on repeat. They tend to do a halal 'run' which then gets distributed to a variety of companies, some who require halal and some who don't. Non-halal companies don't care if the meat happens to be halal, where as halal companies do. As it costs the same to produce halal and non-halal meats they tens to just produce halal, as it can be sold to anyone, where as non-halal meats can only be sold to the non-halal companies. I hope that makes sense.

The non-stunned halal meat is expensive and almost exclusively sold at Islamic butchers.

This is the reality of rearing and killing pigs. In other species there has been much documentation of animals still being alive whilst being butchered. Please, if anyone cares about the welfare of animals, just stop eating and using them. Halal etc is a red herring

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/pork-production-truth-pig-farming-uk-factory-hughfearnley-whittingstall-sienna-miller-mick-jagger-a7813746.html

Thanks, Sandstorm - that makes perfect sense, thanks for explaining.

Though it does seem that, if this thread is anything to go by, a lot of people do have a problem with any Halal meat and therefore it can't (or shouldn't) be sold to just anyone.

I'm not sure it matters whether or not the objection to stunned Halal meat is valid or not. Our dietary choices don't have to be valid or reasonable, do they? I have no logical reason to (for example) refuse to eat red meat or drink regular soda - but if I ate a chicken wrap that actually had pork in it or was served regular coke in a diet coke can I'd be very upset and feel my choice had been violated. I personally don't feel that way about any meat I buy turning out to be Halal - but if other people do then I think they're justified.