Wednesday, November 21, 2018

What Really Are Halal Meals Ready To Eat

By Christopher Thompson


Sometimes when you are out on maneuvers with your platoon, you may have come to see some of your soldier buddies eating a different kind of MRE. You probably noticed that the MRE that they eat are either marked as kosher or even halal. This of course has made you more curious if these types of meals are better than the ones you eat or just the same. Thus to find out more about what are kosher and halal meals ready to eat, then do read on in this article.

Halal food is prepared under the guidelines set in the Koran, and under the guidance and interpretation of Islamic holy men or imams. For kosher foods, the preparations are done under the supervision and guidelines set by rabbis, Jewish holy men, and the stipulations under the Torah, of Jewish Holy Book.

Quite a lot of people the world over will be familiar with the term halal and halal food. This is because the symbol is fairly widespread and can be seen on a lot of items. For those who do not yet know, the word means allowed while the opposite, haram means forbidden. The term and label of also encompasses lifestyle and certain items as well like hotels, clothing and fashion even. In a growing number of countries some television programs can also have the symbol or mark in the corner of the screen.

As for things kosher and things prepared via the Jewish tradition, it is gaining ground as well in terms of a following, particularly in the United States. The difference between halal and kosher foods is that the former will never allow anything artificial in the ingredients whereas for the latter it may allow items like monosodium glutamate and artificial sweeteners.

Due to the similarities in history of the Jewish and Muslims, many believe that kosher and halal are the same thing. Nothing could be more wrong and one must not stick to this position so as to avoid embarrassment in certain situations in the Middle East.

There are stark differences also in the way that Jews and Muslims prepare their meat. For the Muslim meat requires a lot of prayers to Allah before the slaughter, while kosher meat requires no such prayers. For the Jews, meat becomes kosher as long as it is a rabbi who prepares it.

In kosher preparations alcohol is permissible in the ingredients. However, for Muslim foods, alcohol will always be haram. Thus do not expect to have a Muslim fruitcake anytime soon, definitely you will be able to find a kosher fruitcake. Interestingly fruits and vegetables are always allowed by Muslims but they can only be kosher for a Jew as long as no bugs or insects have touched them. Likewise grape and fruit products will always be kosher only if they are made by Jews.

In conclusion hopefully this article has shown the basic differences of these two kinds of religious meal preparations. Thus if this article has done its job properly, next time that you see an MRE with such markings of either preparation, you will not be as confused.




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