Jacque in Jakarta: My Halal Decision

A few weeks ago a friend of mine requested that I write a blog about food in Jakarta. I explained that I don't eat enough Jakartan food to write a blog about it, but I decided I could at least write a post about it. So here is my post about food in Jakarta, or, more specifically, halal food.

Since Indonesia is eighty-six percent Muslim, most meat has to be halal in order to get sold. The meats that are not halal are pork and fish. For those of you who know me, you know that I don't eat pork. It's a decision I made when I was in Germany because I discovered pork is a very dirty meat and I wanted to be more conscious of what I put into my body. That being said, I decided after eight months of eating halal beef I should check out what exactly that entailed.

Some more background about my dietary choices is that I have been a vegetarian off and on since about the age of fourteen. My main reasons for becoming vegetarian were always ethical. I don't believe living creatures should be tortured and I don't like that some animals are given special treatment over other animals. It contradicts my idea of justice that in the West we treat dogs and cats like members of our family but cows and pigs are just the main course.

I did a lot of research on halal meat after consuming a very delicious Pizza Hut supreme pizza made with all halal meat. I always knew that Muslims were required to eat halal meat, but I didn't know what made meat halal. So I researched it first on the ever-trusty wikipedia and came across the section on method of slaughter. When I read that it "causes severe suffering to animals" I became greatly concerned about my dietary habits of the past eight months and decided to do more thorough research. I found many arguments from both pro and anti halal sites and finally decided to see it for myself.

The first video I watched was pretty horrifying. WARNING: This video is very graphic and not recommended for young audiences or weak stomaches. This video shows Halal butcher. I thought I should watch a few more videos to make a more informed decision. After about an hour of online research I decided that I am ethically compelled to abstain from halal meat.

Not eating halal will probably make the rest of my time in Jakarta quite challenging. I have considered eating pork again, but I'm not looking forward to it. Most of the restaurants we frequent serve halal meat, so we'll either need to discover more vegetarian options or go out to more Chinese restaurants which have plenty of pork options. There's a saying that "ignorance is bliss" and I have to agree. Life was much more blissful when I could eat a beef burger without wondering whether it was halal.

Halal butcher of cow. Cow is tied up and throat is cut with sharp knife.