What it means

Halal, which means “permissible” in Arabic, is a religious diet observed by Muslims. It forbids the consumption of alcohol, even in cooking, pigs and any meat that has not been slaughtered according to Islamic law. I figured it wouldn’t be too much of a change since I used to eat halal while living in Kuwait. Man, was I wrong.

J Street options

Prior to heading to J Street, I asked one of my Muslim friends for suggestions. Turns out, there are no halal meat options in J Street. I could eat anything I wanted there – cheese, eggs, salads, even fish and seafood – as long as it wasn’t meat. I was extremely frustrated, not because of having a vegetarian lunch, but because the halal diet doesn’t require abstaining from eating meat. I managed to satisfy my hunger with other food options, but I began to feel what the rest of the Muslim population at GW – especially freshmen – must feel all year round.

After asking around, I discovered that there are a couple of restaurants around campus that do serve halal meat and accept GWorld (win-win). Halal-friendly eateries include Pizza Movers, Manny and Olga’s, Moby Dick and Mehran.

The bottom line

GW needs to take its Muslim students into account and start serving halal meat options at J Street.