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!

Commonarewe, the main reason is people think its a cruel way to slaughter animals and that is a perfectly valid reason to not want to eat it.

Not ALL meat in the UK is halal, most supermarket meat probably is, but it is possible to buy at that isn't - and we need to keep that and even campaign for clear labeling do people can make an informed choice or vote with their wallets.

I am lucky as there are a few farm shops near me and a couple raise, slaughter & sell their own animals. Not everyone has this nearby or can afford to eat that meat for every meal as it is expensive compared to a supermarket but everyone should have the choice to buy non halal meat.

Er, the earlier helpful posts were explaining halal food to,the OP.

er the earlier posters don't even know the people Op is talking about, and don't have a clue what their needs, preferences or habits are.

How insulting to assume that something a random on the internet says about what "Muslims" want or believe is automatically going to apply to your friends

I don’t care if the meat I have is Halal or not but some people might so if OP IS serving it then she should make sure all her guests are aware

How unfortunate that neither you nor Jacques are the arbiters of what others are allowed to care about

Good grief are you 5? You haven’t answered a single question about why you’re so against it, and are now throwing out insults that a child would resort to.

Neatly proving the point I might add.

But since virtually all supermarket meat is halal, does that mean that anyone serving meat to anyone now has to announce whether the meat is halal or not? No-one does that.

So why is there a rise in Islamophobia then? Beyond the media because I’d like to think people aren’t so stupid they actually believe the crap circulated in the MSM.

Genuine question.

Because honestly, it looks a lot like bigotry to me.

back to OP's original question - OP I am Muslim and think you are being incredibly thoughtful and lovely. In my case we would eat everything you have listed. We don't eat pork but halal isn't critical - that's just the way I was raised so we basically eat all meat apart from pork. I don't drink but have lots of friends that do, I have no problem with it. I know my mum would be uncomfortable if someone brought alcohol to her house but she is fine with going to someone else's place and them drinking. Hope that helps!

Gosh isn’t life complicated now ! I never had to worry about this kind of thing.

Islamaphobia Am not sure that a poster on MN pointing out that other faiths do not want Halal food forced on them actually counts as Islamaphobic.

For Sikhs and some Christians they consider it against their conscience to eat Halal food. Why do the rights of Muslims trump the rights of other religious minorities?

This is why I hate political correctness and "woke" culture. Nobody should be a "protected class" of people, everyone's rights to their beliefs should be respected. I reckon most of the meat in the UK should be slaughtered normally and there can be Kosher or Halal butchers for everyone who wants them. That way, everybody is happy. And no one faith is dominating over another.

ODFO with the won't eat halal bollocks

There is no humane way to rear and kill an animal for money in an industrial, large turnover environment. Anyone that thinks you can is delusional.

Assume all you animal loving meat eaters are raising your own animals with love and care, allowing them to live to a good age before painlessly killing them while giving them a cuddle and singing a lullaby

Or at the very least actively investigating the welfare standards of where your food is coming from?

OP, why not just ask these friends what they would like to eat, as I suspect not all Muslims stick to the rules to the same degree.

Lol at people thinking they should be informed that the meat is halal!

I might actually try this at my next barbecue to weed out the idiots. Any meat eater who says they don't eat halal is automatically uninvited.

I think 'life' has been complicated in terms of dietary requirements for a while. Over fifty years ago, I was brought up as vegetarian and people who weren't used to vegetarian food had to work out what to give me.

Jewish families who will eschew certain foods and/or observe strict dietary laws have been in the UK for many centuries.

There's also a long tradition - now largely forgotten - of avoiding rich food over Lent.

Plus avoiding giving people with diabetes too much sugar is not exactly new..

"If you're serving non-grass-fed beef at your barbecue, you should really let all your guests know"

Can you imagine anyone saying this? No, because telling people about where exactly the meat came from at a barbecue isn't a thing that anybody does or cares about. Being anti-halal is really nothing to do with animal welfare (not if you've an ounce of intelligence anyway, since non-halal meat is slaughtered in a very similar way) and just an excuse to be against something because it's ISLAMIC omg

OP - I grew up in a Muslim country. Strict Muslims won't eat pork or drink alcohol (some Muslims will). You can serve them anything else you can think of.

You can serve alcohol to others. It's not an insult to Muslims.

I wouldn't serve pork to anyone at the table not because it offends but because it's heavy smell can bother people who are not used to it, even if they are not religious (including yours truly).

Vinegar is absolutely fine. I have never heard of anyone who thinks it's forbidden. You don't get drunk on vinegar which is the whole point of the religious ban.

Halloumi is fine, too. I can't think of a reason why you would think it's not.

Good for you OP. Do a veggie barbecue, everyone is equally able to be happy or unhappy.

I don't think it matters how "valid" other people's dietary choices are, meat, no meat, halal, no halal, whatever, I think vegan and vegetarian diets are bollocks but it's not my business to evaluate what they choose and you respect your friends and treat it as an opportunity to cook something different.

Worth noting, some of us are religiously forbidden to eat halal or kosher meat, and people don't always broadcast their religious rules, so don't ninja either of those in at a mixed gathering any more than you would cook the veggie burgers I bacon fat.

Sounds like an excellent bar by, wish I'd been invited

its heavy smell

When my kids have their Muslim friends over for tea, we just make marguerita pizza or veggie burgers - all fine. I have absolutely no problem with halal meat either, whether someone chooses to say some words over it doesn't bother me as I don't believe it changes anything (and our family is mixed secular/Jewish/Christian) and something has to be killed to provide that meat either way, so you can't really be comfortable with one method but not the other.

We use separate bbq for veggie and meat. Makes life easier

Everything you are serving sounds fine. Just cook the halal meat first before the non halal meat. Drinking in front of Muslims is ok!

My kids have friends over we have margarita pizza,or fish & chips,happy faces,beans etc
Their friends are Muslim,Jewish,Christian, and none have knocked back chips

Why is it acceptable to only eat halal but people who don’t agree with halal get stick?????? Confusing. Ffs. Op you sound like a lovely friend.

“Why is it acceptable to only eat halal but people who don’t agree with halal get stick?????? Confusing. Ffs”

Because it is immaterial to me -and to you- what is being played over the loudspeakers in the abattoir. I would rather prayers than, say, the speeches of Margaret Thatcher. But neither would make any difference to the cow. Or to me.

This is getting completely ridiculous. I laughed out loud at the liar, sorry, poster, who said their school was taken to court over serving halal meat. Please tell us how that worked out! My daughter's school doesn't serve pork and all the meat is halal. I wouldn't even know about the halal thing, except a friend (muslim) had asked and mentioned it. It's certainly not something you legally have to declare and it shouldn't be. All this anti-halal nonsense is simply thinly veiled racism. I hope none of you hypocrites are partial to a chicken tikka masala lol.

Has anyone said WHY they'd be so opposed to eating the meat if it wasn't halal yet?
As "halal is cruel" doesn't make sense. Surely ALL slaughtering animals for food is cruel if you think about it?