Some of you may have recently come across a shop in Mallorca like the one shown here, selling meat slaughtered the Halal way. This prevalence has to do with the increase of immigrants from North Africa and mainly from Morocco over the last few years. I understand that the Moroccan community in Mallorca now claims the third largest number of immigrants, behind Ecuador and Argentina, and way ahead of Germany or Britain. In total, there now appear to be some 180,000 foreigners living in Mallorca (2008), including approximately 18,000 Moroccans. That figure would warrant a number of shops specializing in Halal food, one should think.

The Islamic religion has some laws and regulations regarding food and food preparation, such as, which items can and which ones cannot be eaten, and also on the proper method of slaughtering animals for consumption. In a shop designating the term Halal, our Moroccan neighbours can be sure to purchase food and in particular, meat or poultry, which has been slaughtered the way stipulated by the Qur’an. A shop selling Halal food also means that alcoholic beverages, for instance, are not for sale.

The photo was chosen from my archive. It was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Balares, Spain. The date: October 5th, 2005. The time was 14:19:54.