USA-ILLINOIS: HALAL LAWS IN ILLINOIS

Defining Halal
State guidelines not final for certifying meats permissible by Muslim practice
BY KATHERINE GLOVER

GLENDALE HEIGHTS Halal means different things to different people.

And when Yousuf Khan first started distributing Halal meat in 1987, he trusted the people who sold to him. He did not question where the meat came from or how the sellers could guarantee it was permissible according to the Muslim religion.

But then Khan started investigating.

"I am a cop from back home," the Pakistani owner of Glendale Heights-based Zabiha Halal Meat Processors Inc. said with a laugh.

He discovered a lot of fraud, and after Kahn tracked some of the meat he was buying to slaughterhouses where the owners didn't know what Halal is, he decided to start slaughtering the animals himself.

"Left and right, cheating is going on in that market," he said.

Although there is some apparent fraud, it is sometimes just a difference of opinion.

In 2001, Illinois passed the Halal Food Act, which makes it a misdemeanor to mislead someone into believing that a non-Halal product is Halal. Illinois was the third state in the country to make such a rule.

Five years later, the specifics of the Illinois rules are still not finalized, according to Kris Mazurczak, meat and poultry inspection bureau chief for the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

"We hope to publish these rules in spring," Mazurczak said. "The challenge of the community is they have different expectations. Different parts of the community do not agree on a definition of Halal product."

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Pertinent Links:

1) Defining Halal