The One Control of Life

Along the sixth street in uptown New Westminster, from fourth to eighth avenue lie many restaurants and eateries, both affordable and a bit fancier. They offer distinctive cuisines – Arabian donairs, Mexican burritos, Ukrainian borsch, Indian samosas, Japanese sushi, Vietnamese pho, and so.

Why can’t people leave behind their old food habits along with their former countries once they arrive in a new land that has completely different customs from what they are used to? Is it possible that they are actually satisfying a different kind of craving with their intake of food which has nothing to do with their tastebuds?

“I just want to serve my people – that’s why I sell halal”, had said the owner of the former Taza Falafal who happens to be a Christian from Iraq. She remembered that back there in Iraq, halal was a de facto choice. Now that she lives in British Columbia, she could choose not to sell halal, but her ethnic food mostly attracts Arabs – majority of whom are Muslims. In place of Taza Falafel, now stands Ishtar Donair on the intersection of fourth avenue and sixth street of New Westminster. The owner is an Assyrian Christian.

Many halal eateries in New Westminster (halal food shops are just a few in number anyways, in the city) are actually owned and run by Christians who came as refugees from Muslim majority countries. While a cuisine is cultural, halal is not. Rather halal is a religious obligation for Mulsims, but using halal ingredients is not any legal obligation in Canada. Yet the owners of the Middle Eastern eateries would often opt to do so. No longer having the option to go back home, halal food is the one assertive piece of their former homeland that they cling onto in their new homeland in BC.

Absence of halal ingredients often prevent immigrant Muslims to try different cultural cuisines available in the neighbourhood. But are Muslims able to observe all religious obligations they are supposed to?

Every Ramadan a story circulates on facebook – two friends are chatting: One Muslim and another non-Muslim. The Muslim is an immigrant and part of the minority in the country they both reside. The non-Muslim is so awed by his Muslim friend’s strong will of refraining from food and drink from predawn to sunset.

“But it’s summer now. So hot and long days. Can’t you sneak in something in your mouth when nobody is around?” – the non-Muslim friend would ask.

“But God is watching!”

The non-Muslim friend widens his eyes and wonders that there must be no need for law enforcement agencies in his friend’s homeland. Where people are so God conscious that they are ready to give up food – the most basic need of life – for the sake of God, they obviously refrain from any crime or corruption, too.

Now it’s time for the Muslim friend to avert his eyes in shame and embarrassment. The narrative style and humble tone of the story suggests that it is not meant to be a typical Islamophobic story, rather a wake up call for all Muslims. Islam is a religion that encompasses all aspects of life – in other words, accepting Islam is not just accepting a religion, but a complete lifestyle. Yet, food is often the only focal point of this lifestyle.

Why?

And not just Muslims, many religious, ethnic or cultural groups would often willingly or involuntarily let go of many traditions everyday, except their choice of food. Maybe, people already know that they cannot do anything about their heavily imperfect world, and a controlled oral consumption is the only power they can exert, the only sense of satisfaction they can claim in life.