To not offer two types of beef burger at summer fair (halal and non halal)?

[NameChangedJune]

In addition a veggie option?

I’ve took responsibility for sorting the burgers for BBQ at summer school PTA fair.
I was thinking, I can buy all burgers as halal only. A good portion of the school population are either non-religious or Muslim.

However, DH is saying we should also offer a non-halal burger option (he is religious - Sikh and avoids halal due to his beliefs). However I think he is a minority and could have veggie? There are Hindus but they wouldn’t eat beef anyway so it’s a tiny amount of people other than DH who I think would care if we go full halal for the burgers.

IMO one type of beef burger that is suitable for most would be easiest. AIBU?

I think you need 3. Halal non halal and veggie. And then 3 separate sets of bbq and utensils.

I would never eat halal and would not be happy if it were my only option. I have nothing against veggie food but avoid ultra processed like veggie meat and I know lots of people eat this way too. I would expect food to cater to this. If it's a large proportion of Muslims in the school it's reasonable to give them an opinion too they should be equally catered for.

Also you should do onions. BBQs never have enough onions in my opinion

Halal and veggie. Despite all the bluster, that is what is going to sell more. You could also just not specify halal and let people know when asked. Then the non religious wouldn’t know

This isn’t the school playground, I’m fairly sure your little school gang aren’t going to threaten to tell teacher that someone politely replied to you.

I agree with this.

I'm Muslim, @NameChangedJune , and it might be controversial, but in your situation (unless there were a clear precedent from previous events), I'd probably either go with only non-halal meat and plenty of veggie options, or only halal meat and plenty of veggie options, and probably the first would be easier as it would probably create less stress and drama.

As a general rule, I assume all meat products at BBQs and similar events will likely not be halal. Even if a meat product was in itself halal, if it's prepared using the same utensils as or otherwise 'contaminated' by a non-halal meat product or (eg) alcohol (I'm not meaning this in a judgemental way, just in the same way as it would be 'contamination' for a meat product to touch a veggie product) then it's no longer halal. I'd therefore opt for the veggie option, so long as I could be confident that it had been prepared separately from meat products.

We should all be trying to reduce our meat consumption anyway, for environmental reasons, so you could also think about having several veggie options good enough to be people's first choices.

This is as horrible a suggestion as splitting regular burgers and labelling one set halal. You can’t trick people into eating it, how pathetic.

I am veggie now, but when I ate meat, I wouldn’t have been happy if the only meat option available was halal. Not something I would pay for or buy for my family.

Why not do halal beef & veggie bugers and sausage rolls as non halal option?

You'd have to have clear signage that the burgers are halal otherwise the majority of the Muslim people will automatically choose the veggie options. Then you will have the problem of lots of non Muslim people seeing the signs and not wanting halal burgers out of principle, so you could end up running out of veggie and having a shit ton of halal burgers left over. Tbh I wouldn't be happy eating a halal burger out of choice, so would definitely choose the veggie option, and feel a bit miffed there was no regular beef option. Just get normal beef burgers, and Linda McCartneys and everyone will be happy. Or just do frankfurters hotdogs and have a veggie option, as those rubbery bad boys taste the same dubious way, veggie or not.

Why shouldn't they.

My muslim friends and colleagues always ask or check whether Halal food is available when whe choose a restaurant and when we order. I have never witnesssd a non muslim acquaintance ever ask or seem to care one way or the other.

I'm going to call it as i see it and say I think a lot of the people that have a problem do so because its Muslim, not because its Halal, because ive never seen a non vegan give a shit about how meat is slaughtered in any other context.

Im not the one restricting choices. A regular burger, halal and veggie option would suffice.

No. You buy the non halal burgers and everyone else can have veggie.

She didn’t say it was majority Muslim school. Inclusivity? What about the Sikhs and Hindus then?

I'd do beef and vege, that but I guess if you think the halal will be the biggest seller, do halal beef and vege

Thank you for clarification. I didn't realise pork could be an issue too.

It's not the various burger options, it's the 3 sets of utensils on top which adds the hassle. Maybe serve all vegetarian?

I'm vegetarian so have no vested interest really. My Understanding is that most meat cooked commercially in the UK now, including schools, supermarkets, and restaurants, canteens, etc is Halal. I don't know how that is disclosed to purchasers?

Do Muslims not care about animal welfare? I'm curious?

That's not a good suggestion. People should make informed choices on things like this

Most Sikhs who eat meat will happily eat halal, Hindus as a majority don’t eat beef anyway, so don’t care if its halal or not as they have the vegetarian option. A lot of Hindus also would be wary of bbq meat being contaminated beef, so would likely avoid any chicken or lamb offerings as well.

Nice swerve - be honest - why would you not visit any country in the world where Islam is the main religion? is it because you’re Islamophobic?

@socialdilemmawhattodo agree.

I've started asking in restaurants if the meat is Halal. It often is.

Just not flagged as such on the menu.

I think a lot of posters on this thread would be surprised how much food in the U.K. is halal. I’m pretty sure we’ve all eaten halal meat unless you are absolutely meticulous about checking provenance every time you buy meat. For example, many Nando’s restaurants serve halal meat: https://www.nandos.co.uk/halal

My children’s London school only serves lamb or chicken meat (no pork or beef due to the large number of pupils who won’t eat it for religious reasons) and I believe all the meat served is halal.

I’m not Muslim (or Jewish or Hindu or any other religion with food restrictions) and I try to serve high welfare meat at home. But I’m not naive enough to think the average packaged chicken sandwich probably doesn’t have high welfare. And if I really wanted to avoid that I’d need to eat vegetarian unless I was sure of sources.