A Liberal MLA mistakenly thought she could make hot dogs halal, misleading Muslim guests at this past weekend’s Fairview Community Barbecue to chow down on the forbidden foodstuffs.
Patricia Arab, Liberal MLA for Fairview-Clayton Park, reportedly told Muslim attendees at Titus Park on Saturday that the chicken hot dogs being served to them were halal. It was later revealed the Maronite Catholic MLA had simply uttered a prayer over the sausages.
According to a press release from the Fairview Community Association, a volunteer was misinformed as to what is required for food to be designated halal. Which led to the impromptu prayer ceremony.
“[Arab] had gotten information from somebody that she thought it was the right thing to do,” says Keith Wells with the FCA. “She was trying to help out and thought she was doing a good thing.”
Now in its eighth year, the Fairview Community Barbecue has previously always offered halal food, even going to the extent of providing separate cooking spaces for the halal items. An “organizational issue” meant the group wasn’t able to provide the same items this year.
Under Islamic law, for meat to be classified as halal the animal’s slaughter must be performed by a Muslim and under strict conditions. Members of the Legislative Assembly do not have it within their power to certify food products as in accordance with religious law.
Imam Ibrahim Alshanti, of the United Muslims of Halifax, says several members reached out to his group about the barbecue. Alshanti says the effort of saying a prayer over the food “is a joke.”
“It’s okay if you don’t have halal food,” he says. “Just tell the people, ‘Sorry, we don’t have halal food.’ It will be fine.
“The MLA, she wants to fix the problem, but instead of fixing the issue, she made it worse.”
The imam recommends any future community events reach out to the Muslim community in advance if they’re having problems finding halal-certified food.
“If we are informed, we’ll even go and provide the meat for them. We’ll try and make the event more organized,” he says. “We’ll be more than happy to help them. But don’t try and fix the mistakes by doing a bigger mistake.”
In their release, the FCA apologizes for the miscommunication and says it will be reaching out to the Muslim community and enacting measures to make sure the mistake doesn’t occur again in the future.
“It’s just gotten so blown ridiculously out of proportion,” says Wells, about the complaints. “That’s what’s so frustrating about this. There’s no ill intent, no sense of trying to deceive anyone. It’s just a non-story.”
Calls to Arab from The Coast went unanswered.
This article appears in Aug 14-20, 2014.
That last quote really summed this article up
لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا الله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ الله
What a stupid, ignorant thing to do. Next weeks she’ll be feeding hot dogs at the local synagogue, but its ok, she saw Schindler’s List.
I don’t want someone who, when they don’t know the answer their first thought is to make it up, as my elected representative.
The fact that it also disrespects a culture is the context.
Wow Mr. Wells, the last statement, in the article, showed how dismissive you and the FCA are of the beliefs of other cultures. You cancelled out any true apology with only four words….. It’s just a non-story.
A little education and respect will go a long way towards making a real community.
I agree, Mr. Smith. And seriously, lets say she’s at The Beth Israel Synagogue and serving food, would this be any different? The CH has picked up the story as well, I don’t even want to glance at the comments.
Maybe Kurt Westergaard has a safe house he currently isn’t using?
Hahaha. A ridiculous, superstitious requirement is screwed up by a follower of another ridiculous superstition. Goofballs all around.
People calm down. Patricia Arab made an unfortunate but honest mistake. I’m a conservative and I’ll be workng the next election to defeat Ms Arab on substantial differences in policy. Ths type of “gotcha” politics is demeaning and w shouldn’t stoopto that level.
Whatever. It will barely be a footnote in the election so cool your jets, bandwagoneer. Hey, I heard they switched the wine with koolaid and the host with oreos but nobody cared because the elected official said a few woo woos over it to make it all good. ha ha, good luck with your election, starting a little early, don’t you think?
Man, I can’t believe that there are no Sausagefest2014 jokes coming out of this.
Responsibility is joint between the organizers and us (Muslims). The organizers should’ve done their research and asked around; Muslims are present in big numbers in the HRM and more specifically in the clayton park area.
As for the Muslim’s responsibility, we need to be more involved and active in the community in such events in order to do our part in the development of the community and also to introduce people to our principles and beliefs.
Apology was made and i respect that, but i agree with the other comments that Mr. Wells’s last comment on this being a non-story is disrespecting and unacceptable.
I hope lesson is learnt and that we move forward and do better the next time.
The method of slaughtering animals so they are halal to eat is unbelievably cruel and inhumane. Non-muslims shouldn’t bend over backwards to accommodate the cruelty.
LOL, that’s funny as fuck!!!
What’s actually ignorant and medieval is the insistence of certain religions on banning certain foods (which is retarded). To be even-handed here, what’s also abhorrent is the insistence of others on eating endangered species (such as tuna fishing or whaling or other shark-fishing or other over-fishing), the insistence of the Americans and Canadians on eating beef to the detriment of rain forests, Vietnamese on beating and terrifying dogs to supposedly enhance the flavour of that meat, and Chinese consumption of rare parts of rare species as supposed health cures or aphrodisiacs.
This is 2014, it’s not 1014. It’s not stupid, ignorant or disrespectful to object to cultural practices which have no place in the 21st century.
In any case, I like Glenn Graham’s comment. If you don’t like Patricia Arab, be that way because you disagree with her views on real issues, not whether she forgot what halal or kosher means, for fuck’s sake.
LIBERAL MLA JOANNE BERNARD FROZE INCOME RATES FOR THE POOR. BUT IT OK LIBERAL MLA PATRICIA ARAB SAY PRAYER TO TURN SEVEN LOAF OF BREAD INTO FOOD FOR FOUR THOUSAND.
DOES THIS MEAN BACON WRAPPED SCALLOPS AT PATRICIA ARAB’S HANUKKAH PARTY NO KOSHER?
I bet she didn’t even know there was a Halal meat shop in her area either. She was an idiot to even think she could bless it (BTW Halal meat is a method of processing the meat very similar to Kosher). She was out of her league, tried to fake it and got caught.
At least The Coast said it was chicken wieners, which is more than what the Herald did.