What is Halal food? That's food according to Muslim law. Sort of like Kosher foods.
While I have no problem as such for various ethnic foods being offered, and a Kosher restaurant is fine too, same thing goes for Halal. What bothers me is the fuss being made over it.
When is the last time, if ever, you heard about Jews making a a big to do about demanding Kosher foods being offered in supermarkets or BigBox stores like Walmart? Or in airplanes or fast food stores? Jewish people have been managing just fine for years and there's a huge population of them in the US and elsewhere. Kosher food is available in many grocery stores, specialty delicatessen and restaurants. I don't remember there ever having been made a push to court the Jewish customer.
So what is the big fuss over Halal? Why do places like McDonald's go out of their way to court the Muslim customers? Or Walmart? Or sports arenas? I see plenty of grocery stores that obviously court the Middle-Eastern customer and presumebly their tastes and customs. Isn't that enough? Do the big grocery chains have to make a big to do to accomodate the Muslim customer?
If I want German sausages or sauerkraut I go to a German deli, I don't scream that my local supermarket should cater to my wants, nor do I expect that their headquarters should make a study to see how many Germans or those of German descent in my area would be interested in German delicacies and thus would become potential customers. I find what I want in the selection offered, make substitutions for those items that are close enough for the desired items, and if that is not possible to take myself to the local German deli and get it there. I do not expect "Der Wienerschnitzel" to serve a genuine German sausage either (since the company has taken the name of a totally different food item as its name for a hot dog place) or demand from the company that they should.
Not only that: have you ever heard that the country from where these people hail accomodates foreigners' tastes for pork or alcohol? Of course not. So the foreigner has to make do with what's offered (at least in public, I think we have all heard of the clandestine parties in Saudi Arabia where alcohol is flowing, pork is available and women are wearing revealing Western dress with strange men present.) Now isn't that tough?
I don't think (although I can't be sure as I have not been there) that you can get a cheeseburger in Israel because of the dietary law of not mixing meat with dairy. So if you are hankering for that cheeseburger then you make it at home, problem solved.
As long as the Muslim-dominated countries do not allow non-Muslim places of worship or so-called "forbidden" foods or drink for those who want them, I do not see why any non-Muslim country should cater to them and their wants. Let them manage with what's offered or go to a place that better suits them. I find that this borders on terrorism of an insidious kind, slowly taking over from the inside. Of course, once they do take over with all their silly obstructionist rules they won't like it here either as obviously they would not be here to begin with if they had liked it back where they had come from, so why would they like it here once it became like the place they had left?
Of course this can be turned on its head too. Why would the Western world want to impose its values on others? Obviously because the Westerners think their way is better and would like to bring that way to others. I know of nobody personally who would want to live in those other countries with their rules because they think those rules, and that way of living is better. But droves are leaving to come to the West.
Once the Muslim world was way beyond the way the Europeans lived, its science was much more advanced. But somewhere along the way the people lost it and the West surpassed them. Now they want what the West has but they cling to their unscientific, religion-controlled ways and that just doesn't work. You can't have it both, science and religion do not mix, although they can co-exist.
There are people here too who try to do the same thing: religious people who believe that if it does not come straight out of whatever book they declare holy, or who interpret the mainstram "holy" book in strange ways, let children and other loved ones die because they don't believe in vaccinations, blood transfusions or even surgeries of a minor kind. They declare that science is not their god's word, yet they take advantage of science in other ways: cars, electricity, TV and computers, non-local foods, medications, mass-produced goods of every kind, etc, etc. Most of them want it both but pick and choose which part of science they will accept. (A noted exception are the Amish people and even those allow some of science to intrude into their lives.) Sounds pretty hypocritical to me.
