FAST FOOD BY scott korb PHOTOGRAPHS BY liz barclay ne late afternoon last June, a few hands, mouth, nose, face, arms, hair, ears, and weeks before the start of Rama- feet. The clothes you wear are supposed to be dan, with an hour remaining before clean, too. The stain on his shirt was a problem. Asr, Islam’s afternoon prayer, Imam The imam had begun the day with a prayer O Khalid Latif became suddenly aware at sunrise. Soon after, accompanied by a of blood on his shirt. Even though he was friend, he’d left New York City in a van headed on the road, he knew he would have to pray for a halal meat-processing facility in western soon but was not sure that he could. Maryland known as Simply Natural, about 250 Five daily prayers constitute a pillar of miles away. By one o’clock that afternoon, the Islam, and these prayers are to be done in a men had packed the vehicle with three hand- state of ritual purity. To this end, Muslims slaughtered steers and were headed back. wash before they pray, a preparation known as “Let’s not stop,” the imam had said some- wudhu that includes careful attention to the where along the way. Latif had no change of clothes. Anticipating the logjam on the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel, he started calling sheikhs for advice. After two or three calls, he reached Dawood Yasin, an imam from Berke- ley, California, and an avid bow hunter familiar with the mess involved in breaking down animals. After some con- sideration, Yasin had an answer. Drawing on a tradition of Islamic legal scholar- ship, he said, “For the butcher, the blood, it’s considered pure.” He then thought more. “Let me ask my wife, just in case.” The story ends in a sort of anticli- max. Traffic was light enough that Latif and his friend arrived at their desti- nation in time for a change of clothes. They had time not only to prepare themselves for prayer, but to unload the van, too. Still, after some debate between Sheikh Dawood and his wife, they’d come to an agreement: the prayer would have been permissible, although the sheikh seems to have overstated the case at first. The legal princi- ple in question doesn’t purify impure blood; it excuses the Muslim caught in a situation he simply can’t avoid. By profession, the butcher gets cov- In this spirit and with this story of the test is what makes it so vivid.” ered in blood. And the imam was now in mind, I spent a lot of time at Latif’s Visiting Latif’s shop throughout a butcher. Or, close enough—since butcher shop this past Ramadan, the month, a question took shape in March he’d owned a meat shop. Islam’s holy month, when Muslims my mind: What could make the fast refrain from all food and drink from more vivid for a Muslim—the month n the summer of 2010, I began sunrise to sunset. Like Dawood Yasin, more purifying—than living it in a chronicling the inaugural year of the scholars at Zaytuna College, and food store, offering recipes, wrap- Zaytuna College, the nation’s first Suhaib Webb, Khalid Latif has, over ping up burgers, and hearing custom- Ifour-year Muslim liberal arts school; the years, been a helpful guide into the ers talk of midday summer barbecues this is when I first met Sheikh Dawood tradition, specifically my understand- while you go without? Yasin. When, in April 2013, two broth- ing of Ramadan. So has the convert At thirty-two, Khalid Latif is rela- ers set off bombs near the finish line Rollo Romig, a Muslim writer who tively young for an imam, and shorter of the Boston Marathon, I collaborated has become a friend. Writing for the than he seems, a New Jersey native with Suhaib Webb, imam of New Eng- New Yorker about his first Ramadan whose family emigrated from Paki- land’s largest mosque, on an op-ed for fast in 2012, Romig explained that, stan in the 1970s. He opened the the New York Times, where we argued unlike other religious fasting, this long store, Honest Chops, with three part- that the country’s mainstream Islamic month of long days is “intended pri- ners. They’ve since hired a few other institutions are essential to fighting marily for focus and elevation, not for employees. It’s the first whole-animal religious extremism. Though not Mus- penance and atonement. It’s not about halal butcher shop in the country. lim myself, I’ve come to see Islam as mortification of the flesh or other- After graduating in 2004 from New an increasingly significant—and often wise beating yourself up—Ramadan is York University, where I teach and misunderstood—influence on Ameri- really about developing new habits: of where the imam and I initially met, can civic life. thought, action, routine. The extremity Latif studied at Hartford Seminary’s 126 Lucky Peach Islamic Chaplaincy Program—also the job-training programs, a domestic vio- Latif told me about his own expe- first of its kind in the nation. His main lence shelter, and an Islamic school in rience that same summer in a meat work as a religious leader has been with Manhattan. These projects are likewise shop on Atlantic Avenue in Brook- the New York Police Department—in financially supported by a Muslim wed- lyn, a stretch of which is packed with 2007, he was named the city’s Muslim ding service and some Edible Arrange- Islamic and Middle Eastern markets. chaplain—and as the imam overseeing ments franchises. Latif was there with Anas Hasan, now NYU’s Islamic Center, an appointment The thought to open a whole- thirty, a partner in the shop who at the he’s held since 2005. animal butcher shop in the East Vil- time was working as a baggage handler His business partners at Honest lage came to Latif and his wife during for United Airlines and seeking some Chops are members of his congrega- Ramadan 2013. They had encoun- direction in his life. The pair was basi- tion, which is open to Muslims with tered problems getting halal food cally being ignored. “The butcher is or without an affiliation with NYU. they considered wholesome. One picking up huge slabs of meat,” Latif Twenty-five percent of the store’s variation of the story—a version told me, “and there’s a pile of meat in profits will go back into the Islamic of which Latif wrote as part of his the corner, about ten, fifteen feet away Center. Being a Muslim leader in this annual Ramadan reflections for the from him, and how it’s getting there country now often involves the cultiva- Huffington Post—has his wife “bewil- is, he’s picking pieces up from the box tion of Islamic institutions committed dered” at halal meat counters, where and throwing them against the wall. to social services, education, devotion, butchers try to sell her cuts she And they’re ricocheting against the activism, or the arts. Honest Chops hasn’t ordered, or aren’t familiar with wall into that pile. And it’s just building was founded, in part, to help fund the cuts she wants, or “cut the meat, up. Every few minutes he’s scratching pick up the phone, use the cash reg- his beard, rubbing his nose.” This meat ABOVE: Imam Khalid Latif; his butcher shop, ister, and blow their nose simultane- is halal, but the imam can’t bring him- Honest Chops. ously, all without gloves on.” self to bring it home. Lucky Peach 127 Now, on the one hand, what or practicing Muslims, the Proper slaughter makes the ani- offended Latif could be seen as a basic Koran provides the basic prin- mals he kills halal. When they’re calm, lack of hygiene. Offensive to most ciples governing the lawfulness they’re said to have submitted to anyone. But from an Islamic perspec- Fof all things in the world and of Allah. The attention this slaughter- tive, the problem with the Atlantic all human activity. That’s a lot. The house pays to animal welfare helps Avenue butchery—and “the stories book’s second chapter, Surat al-Baqa- ensure that the meat is whole- could go on and on,” Latif says—is rah (“The Cow”), includes this line: “It some, or tayyib. The day I visited, I that it lacks “real excellence,” or ihsan, is He who created for you all of that found three young steers Shakur had a word derived from a root in Arabic which is on the earth.” “He” is God, or slaughtered, all split right down the that denotes beauty, perfection, and Allah. Surat al-Jathiyah, the book’s middle and aging in the freezer. Two spiritual fulfillment. forty-fifth chapter, contains this: “And animals of about the same size— Ihsan is meant to be a constant He has subjected to you whatever is close to 650 pounds each—white fat pursuit for believers. To help out, Allah in the heavens and whatever is on over their flesh, had been raised and gives the believer a month each year, the earth—all are from Him.” These finished on grass; between them hung Ramadan, to focus; daily fasting is a lines are often interpreted as reveal- a huge grain-finished steer whose physical reminder of one’s spiritual ing the mercy of Allah, whose gifts to fat had turned golden.