WITH THE INFLUX of immigrants to the island, the need to cater for alternative requirements has grown. One street in Old Nicosia, running from the Omeriye mosque up to Ohi Square, demonstrates this clearly.
Shop after shop advertises halal meat with colourful signs in Arabic, English and Greek.
Halal is the Arabic term for anything which is permitted by Islamic law, in contrast to haraam, which means forbidden. In Arabic-speaking countries the term refers to anything from human behaviour, speech, clothing, conduct, manner and diet. In non-Arabic speaking countries the term more commonly refers specifically to Muslim dietary laws, especially those concerning meat and poultry.
Christakis Savvides opened his butcher shop seven years ago and has sold halal meat from the start. He started the business in response to the clear need to adapt to the needs of the immigrant population.
Over a Cyprus coffee and a game of Tavli he explains: “There are many Muslims now in Nicosia. They need to have halal meat, so I opened with a Muslim partner. Before I opened many people were forced to be vegetarians because they could not find halal meat. Either that or they had to bring their meat over from the north. I saw this need and so I opened my shop. I opened for the Muslim people, to enable them to have halal meat.
“The meat comes from local farms, which have only Muslim staff. All the meat is slaughtered on the farm and only by Muslims.”
For meat to be considered halal it must be slaughtered according to dhabiha, the prescribed method of killing animals according to Islamic law. The laws of dhabiha halal require that the animal be slaughtered by a mentally competent adult Muslim (or in some cases a Christian or a Jew, considered ‘People of the Book’).
The animal must be slaughtered by an extremely sharp, unserrated blade, with a swift, deep incision which cuts the jugular veins and carotid arteries on both sides of the neck but leaves the spinal cord intact. This method is considered to be the most humane and merciful way of killing an animal, as well as ensuring the hygiene of the meat itself.
Several other conditions are specified, including that the knife not be sharpened in front of the animal and the animal not slaughtered in front of other animals. The animal is given water to drink and stood facing the direction of Mecca (known as Qibla).
Before the animal is killed, the name of God must be mentioned, in an acknowledgment of God’s right over all things and a sense of gratitude for God’s creation.
The words ‘In the name of God, God is the Greatest (Bismillah, Allahu Akbar)’ are said before the killing takes place. It is not considered appropriate to use the phrase ‘In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful’ (Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim) in this situation, because the slaughtering is an act of necessity rather than mercy.
Savvides receives a delivery twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. He sells chicken, beef and lamb, which are all permitted meats, but not pork which is forbidden by Islamic law.
Though only a small shop, Savvides boasts a “very big profit and very high sales”.
Further up the street, Mahmun Abdullah, a butcher from Bangladesh, is also happy to say that profits are good.
“Some months are very good, others a little low. So it’s medium” he says modestly “Now it’s Ramadan so we are selling a little less than usual.”
During Ramadan, Muslims fast completely between sunup and sunset. With the exception of a meal before dawn and another at dusk, not a drop of food or water must touch their lips during the 30-day period preceding Eid-al-Fitr.
According to Abdullah, most of the customers are Arabs or Asian; members of Cyprus’ growing immigrant population. But they sell to a number of Cypriots as well. All the meat they sell is local, originating in various parts of the island.
“The beef comes from Larnaca and is supplied to us by the Boa Company. We bring the chicken in from farms in Dali, so it’s very, very fresh. The chicken is slaughtered on the farms themselves but the beef is slaughtered in a slaughterhouse in Larnaca. They slaughter it twice a week specially, in the halal way.”
Abdullah admits that his business has been affected by the current financial climate however, he says “with the financial crisis people buy less. They don’t have the ability to afford meat so much. But profit is good. Trade is medium now but usually it’s good.”
