WND, the wacky right wing Evangelical website is forwarding the myth that halal food is sacrificed to idols. They also peddle the conspiracy that Americans are going to be forced to eat halal food. The piece from God Discussion is an excellent rebuttal.
World Net Daily worries that if you eat “halal” food you’re eating food sacrificed to idols
(God Discussion)
Pastor Mark Biltz over at World Net Daily worries that you might inadvertently eat “halal” food in the good old US of A–a country of many cultures—food he says is sacrificed to idols, and “catch” Islam like a virus. Ignorance of Islam is at its highest in this comment by Pastor Biltz:
At issue, says Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Wash., is eating food that’s “halal,” in other words “lawful” or “permitted” for the Muslim diet.
Muslims join many Jews and some Christians in avoiding the consumption of certain animals such as pigs and birds of prey, but those of the Islamic faith also have their meat blessed in the name of their god, Allah.
“From the Christian standpoint, Allah would be an idol,” Biltz told WND.”
From a faith standpoint, “Allah” IS God, NOT an idol. Allah.org states:
Allah is the personal name of the One true God. Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender. This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word god which can be made plural, gods, or feminine, goddess. It is interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of God in Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic.
The One true God is a reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates with God. To a Muslim, Allah is the Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who is similar to nothing and nothing is comparable to Him. The Prophet Muhammad was asked by his contemporaries about Allah; the answer came directly from God Himself in the form of a short chapter of the Quran, which is considered the essence of the unity or the motto of monotheism. This is chapter 112 which reads:
“In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say (O Muhammad) He is God the One God, the Everlasting Refuge, who has not begotten, nor has been begotten, and equal to Him is not anyone.”
The Quran also condemns the worship of idols, same as the Christian God:
The Quran reminds us of the falsity of all alleged gods. To the worshippers of man-made objects, it asks:
“Do you worship what you have carved yourself?” (37:95)
“Or have you taken unto you others beside Him to be your protectors, even such as have no power either for good or for harm to themselves?” (13:16)
Moreover, the term “Allah” is used by Arabic speakers of all Abrahamic faiths (let us not forget that Islam is a branch from the same tree as Christianity and Judaism). That means that Mizrahi Jews, Eastern Catholics, Ba’hai’s, and Eastern Orthodox Christians, as Arabic speakers, use the word “Allah.”
As for WND’s and Pastor Biltz’ worry that you and I are eating “halal” food unawares, every day we eat Jewish kosher food and it hasn’t hurt anyone. World Net Daily can’t even get the halal process right. The halal process goes like this:
Halal Meat – The Process | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The slaughtering rules (dhabh in Arabic) for Halal, which are based on Islamic teachings, ethics and jurisprudence need to strictly follow the guidelines below: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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So don’t worry, folks. Eating halal meat isn’t going to make you a involuntary Muslim anymore than eating kosher food unawares makes you an involuntary Jew.
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