DAR AL HARB - U.S.A. - ILLINOIS: TO = HALAL OR NOT HALAL IN ILLINOIS

Muslims in quandary over state food law
Legislation certifying food as halal was passed five years ago. To many Muslims' chagrin, it has yet to be put into effect.
By Margaret Ramirez
Tribune religion reporter

As a Muslim mom and teacher, Dilara Sayeed struggles to find the best food to nourish her family and feed their devout faith.

She wants beef and chicken that are healthy as well as halal: slaughtered and blessed according to Islamic law. Yet often she finds there are limits to the information available from the supermarket or even her neighborhood Muslim grocer. So she, like many Muslims, must trust in God that she is not being deceived.

"Sometimes I just can't get all the answers, so I make an assumption that I'm being served in an honorable way," said Sayeed, of Naperville. "I wish it wasn't true, but there may be some people who are abusing that trust."

Five years after Illinois lawmakers passed legislation making it illegal to falsely label or sell food as halal, the rules still have not gone into effect and the law is not being enforced. Because there are multiple interpretations of what constitutes halal, debates about how the law would work have proved difficult and divisive.

But after years of stalled discussions, Muslim leaders are hammering out a plan to implement the law. Many, however, say the result is likely to be a bureaucratic mess because of the new registration process and the nearly 30-page questionnaire that must be filled out by every grocer, restaurant owner, meat processor and farmer who prepares or sells halal food.

The Illinois statute, modeled after a New Jersey law, requires anyone selling or producing halal food to register with the state for a $75 fee and fill out a disclosure form by checking off boxes indicating how the food was obtained and who certified the product as halal. Since New Jersey passed the nation's first halal law in 2000, similar laws have taken effect in nearly a dozen states.

"With this law, a Muslim consumer is empowered," said Mazhar Hussaini, director of the halal food program for the Islamic Society of North America. "He has to show [the disclosure form to] whoever asks for it. We cannot rely on just the grocer's word, and we can trace the meat from farm to retail store."

Illinois lawmakers say the act purposely does not define halal to allow for the multiple standards in the community. For some Muslims, halal means only avoiding pork or alcohol; others favor hand-slaughter by a Muslim over machine slaughter. Still another growing movement of Muslims argues that halal goes beyond slaughter to how the animals are raised. These Muslims insist that only meat from animals that were raised on organic or natural farms and were slaughtered in a humane way are halal.

Meeting with lawmakers

Last month, several Muslim community leaders met with state lawmakers at a public hearing to discuss what questions would be on the disclosure form. The state Department of Agriculture submitted comments from the hearing to a joint committee and is awaiting approval.

Because the state cannot certify what is halal, officials want all pertinent information on the form so consumers can make purchases according to their own standard. Statements on the form ask, for example, whether the animal was facing Mecca when slaughtered and whether the person performing slaughter is Muslim.

Many Muslims, however, are frustrated that the law fails to define exactly what is halal. Others say the check-box system is inadequate, unenforceable and likely to encourage more fraud.

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1) Muslims in quandary over state food law