Did I ask anyone to eat haraam? I am a practicing Muslim myself, I not only eat "Halal" food, but Zabiha & Halal food. I lived in the US for 10 years, stopped eating meat completely (besides fish), & practically became a vegan.
In US I found majority of people eating
non-Zabiha food saying it's
Halal, I was among one of them; I was told that as the people who cut the animal are
'People of the Book' so, the food is Halal; the
way animal is
slaughtered in US is also by cutting the jugular vein, so, it's similar to the
'Zibh'.
In
Britain, hardly any Muslim (Pakistani) eats non-Halal food. The biggest reason could be the
easy availability of Halal food here. But, this could also be due to the
history of people that
affects their
attitudes towards other people. In US, majority of Muslims are not only
educated, a lot of them are from
Middle East where Christians and Jews were a part of their communities. They lived together for centuries and in
pluralistic, multi-faith communities. The
xenophobic cultural tendencies had a lesser probability to develop. They considered them to be 'People of the Book' and ate the meat cut by them. The tradition of an openness remained with these Muslims when they emigrated to the New World.
In UK, most of the Muslim community are descendants of migrants from
rural areas of Azad Kashmir. The area was
backward, educational opportunities were few, 'People of the Book' were either absent or were the descendants of Indigenous Sub-continental inhabitants. These people had suffered as
'Untouchables' under the Brahmanic religion, the Hindus (or Buddhists/Sikhs) that
converted to Islam had
similar disdainful attitudes towards these people as their non-Muslim kins. That prejudicial view persisted when they emigrated to UK. On the top of that, the
Mullah factor had already classed the Christians, Jews as
Kaffirs. So, even what was
allowed by Quran was
declared 'Haram' by Mullahs.
I still sometimes eat fast food from restaurants which do not sell 'Halal Certified' food. I consider it 'Halal', but non-Zabihah. Even if it is not Halal, eating it is probably one of the
'minor misdemeanor' in Islam.
