Breaking: Halal food carts spotted ON Ground Zero!

[^_^ 5,021]

A reader writes in to sound the alarm about another sacrilege that we've all somehow overlooked:

One thing I haven't seen anyone write about is the presence of Muslim food carts MUCH closer to Ground Zero. There are at least two, depending on the time of day, along West Broadway between Vesey and Park Place. One is practically on top of the Ground Zero construction site, outside the Path station. Aren't they an "affront," a "provocation"? Muslims engaging in in-your-face commerce on sacred ground, with the word HALAL prominently displayed on their carts! Where's Palin when we need her??

Obviously there's an enormous difference between a food cart and a huge cultural center and mosque. And by quoting this email I don't mean to be flip. But nonetheless, this reader is getting at an important point.

Much of the debate over the Islamic center quite properly focuses on Constitutional rights, religious freedom and so on. But what's less remarked on, as this reader points out, is that Muslims are already part of the fabric of New York City, particularly in lower Manhattan. Their activities are interwoven with the city's economy. Non-Muslims of all religions and nationalities rely on the services they provide, whether they are running Halal carts or driving taxis.

The planned Islamic center, presumably, would serve those Muslims, too. I don't think many New Yorkers, if asked, would object to the center if it were understood to serve people they rely on each day to make their work lives more tolerable. This is, I think, a different way to understand the project: It would be another strand of a thread whose color already is deeply interwoven into the fabric of Lower Manhattan. Many of the Muslims who would use the center are Muslim New Yorkers. The center would serve New Yorkers, which is to say it would serve Americans.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/08/breaking_halal_food_carts_cite.html

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Does the person who wrote that walk around with their eyes closed or something?

The halal carts are all over the city!

[HAL 9000 96]

The travesty!

We probably shouldn't be making fun of this... but this has to be some new savagery at work!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I have have a thing about "street meat" ever since I saw meat being unloaded from a passenger car, wrapped in bin bags and being taken into a halal place on 5th Ave. Never tried the carts when I was working in NYC but the food always smelled good.

[Susita 175]

The travesty!

We probably shouldn't be making fun of this... but this has to be some new savagery at work!

Ay dioh mio... it's the all knowing all mighty HAL-nueve-mil!

I want some Halal foods

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I miss the kebab vans of London, Oxford and Bristol, though my intestines don't. Not sure how halal the meat was, but MAN there's nothing like a bab when you're a little wrecked.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I miss the kebab vans of London, Oxford and Bristol, though my intestines don't. Not sure how halal the meat was, but MAN there's nothing like a bab when you're a little wrecked.

If you get one you have to eat it all as there's nothing more nauseating than seeing how much saturated fat congeals on leftover kebab meat.

[HAL 9000 96]

Hola Susita

Congealing fat... now that's a sight worth 1000 words.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

If you get one you have to eat it all as there's nothing more nauseating than seeing how much saturated fat congeals on leftover kebab meat.

I remember one morning when I was staying over at my fiance's rooms at Oxford, walking out and seeing his best mate sprawled on the floor, in a state of advanced dishabille, with a congealed kebab still grasped in his clasp, halfway to his mouth, like he passed out mid-bite. I made a polite "I'm here" noise and he woke up, looked at me, and then finished the kebab-to-mouth hand movement.