[Vision2020] Mohammed Islam

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of Saturday’s (February 17, 2018) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Halal for all
Muslim market serves specialty meats to much of the Pacific Northwest out of a small Pullman store

Pacific Northwest Halal Meats, a small, quiet international grocery store housed in a nondescript building on North Grand Avenue in Pullman, has become an unlikely hub for halal - food that is lawful to eat under Islamic rules - in the region.

Owner Mohammed Riajul Islam, president of the Pullman Islamic Center and adjunct professor with Washington State University, said the store caters to a huge swath of the Pacific Northwest.

Islam said their reason for seeking him out over such great distances is scarcity. There is little by way of halal offerings in the Northwest outside of Seattle, Portland and Salt Lake City.

Some of the fine points of halal can become complicated, but put simply, most food is considered halal so long as it is free of pork and its byproducts and has been slaughtered in the sanctified manner.

"When we kill, we say a prayer pressing towards Mecca," Islam said. "We have to lay down on the floor, and head should be towards Mecca."

Islam said the establishment of the store was part of a long sought solution for local access to halal meats. As a member of the Brooklyn-based Muslim Ummah of North America, Islam said he used to travel to New York and bring halal meats back with him by plane. However, his method was insufficient to supply the Muslim community for some of the larger feast holidays.

"Then we started to slaughter in farm - going to the farm and slaughtering because one of the event(s) in Muslim culture is the Eid," Islam said.

Eid Al-Fitr, Islam said, is a large feast event celebrating the end of the daylight fasting holiday Ramadan. Eid Al-Adha, he said, is an event of sacrifice. Every family is required to sacrifice an animal for Eid Al-Adha, Islam said.

"Once I started to slaughter, then Washington Department of Agriculture, some gentleman from Yakima, called me and said, 'Mr. Islam, you are slaughtering, I think, too many animals and better to have a formal license, that will be easier for all of us,' " Islam said.

As a leader in the community, Islam said he began to explore ways to license the local mosque to slaughter and sell the meat.

"So I contacted the license office, the license office said, 'No, your Islamic center cannot have a profit-making license because it is a nonprofit organization,' " Islam said.

He said it was difficult to find someone to start a local business to secure a for-profit license to slaughter animals, especially because so many of their members are students. After a few years of searching for someone to assume this responsibility, he said it finally fell to him.

"Our board of trustees said, 'If you can put (it) under your name, we'll give you a room in the mosque,' " Islam said.

In 2010, Islam said they began the first iteration of this halal market, but demand and need for space grew quickly, and by 2013, they moved into the larger space on North Grand Avenue. He said at first they only needed a single 800-square-foot space, but have since expanded into a neighboring unit and bolstered their offerings to include a variety of items. The store now carries a variety of meats and prepared meat products that are not halal for non-Muslim patrons. Islam said as the store continued to grow, so too did the diversity of their customer base. Today, he said, the store serves a wide array of people, not just those who are Muslim or of Middle Eastern descent. He said the shawarma, gyros and kabobs are particularly popular.

"We have many non-Muslim people and local people," Islam said. "They're not Muslim, but they come to buy the halal meat because they know that halal meat is much more tasty."

Islam opened a chest freezer stacked high with parcels wrapped in butcher's paper, the great majority of them from Washington State University. Much of the meat is locally sourced, he said.

Besides meat products, the store offers teas, rice, flatbreads and vegetables from all over the world, including Persian cucumbers and a small, pale, non-purple species of eggplant.

Islam said he has always felt at home on the Palouse and is an active member of the community. He said he hopes the store continues to expand and serve a widening range of people throughout the area.

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Owner Mohammed Islam talks about the Middle Eastern and Indian spices
available at Pacific Northwest Halal Meats on Monday in Pullman.

http://www.moscowcares.com/Photos/DNews/MPDN_021718.jpg

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


> On Feb 18, 2018, at 5:06 PM, lfalen <lfalen at turbonet.com> wrote:
> 
> There was a nice article on Mohammed in Saturday's Daily News .He is running a Muslim market in Pullman. He was a UI grad student about 15 years ago when I shared an office with him. He and a friend came to our place and butchered a lamb for the Islam Temple. He is a nice guy.
> 
> 
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