Guest Author - Serkan Tufan

In this article, I will briefly talk about dietary restrictions for Muslims. So when you have your Muslim friends come over, you can comfortably serve food that everyone could eat...

First thing is meat, if you like meat and would like to serve for your friends, it should be "halal" (things that Allah allows His servants to eat) for a Muslim to consume. Just like Kosher rules, halal meat is produced through an intense procedure for the painless slaughter and perfect hygiene, and most importantly remembrance and utterance of God's name is a must while doing this. Thus, the safest way to find halal meat for your guests is to buy from grocery stores or ethnic food stores which carry halal meat (including beef, steak, chicken, turkey, goat or lamb). If you cannot find those, it is ok. There is plenty of alternatives. You can always cook fish. Not all seafood is considered halal, but all fish are halal.

If you cannot find these, or prefer vegetarian dishes, all vegetables and fruits and the meals made with these are halal for Muslims to consume. When it comes to ingredients for recipes, there is a couple things to consider. One is oil, vegetable oil is always ok, and oil from animal sources might not be safe. In this case, generally, kosher certified foods or processed items are okey.

Second, Muslims are not allowed to consume pork or pork derived substances such as processed fat, preservatives, conditioners or gelatin. Therefore, certain cheese and dairy products becomes suspicious because of additives like vitamins and enzymes that are derived from pork body such as skin and fat. The best way is to go with Kosher or halal certified food.

Yet, even with the kosher certified food, there might be alcohol in the food or drinks. Muslims are only allowed to consume products containing alcohol 0.5 % or less (such as distilled vinegar, and fruit juices). So it is nice to look at the amount of alcohol before buying for Muslim friends.

Hope these are helpful hints. There is much more to the dietary rules for Muslims, but this quick guide must be enough for hosting your Muslim friends and it covers most essential things to consider when buying and preparing food for Muslim folks around you.

I will list some websites to visit if you want to learn specifics and details about dietary rules in Islam. Also, refer to my article on animals rights, about meat preparation and halal meat in Islam.

Hope to hear from you soon in email! In the meanwhile, write to me about the topics would you like me to explore. If you have any specific questions, do not hesitate to contact me, I will try to search about it and write in an article for you....Also, watch for the next article, in which I will invite you to the first sweepstakes of the year...