Xa Lie, Muslim from China

I met her in the bus (Greyhound coach) when I had traveling from Canberra to Albury on Monday, 9 April 2007. She is Chinese from Hui ethnic group (sorry, I don’t know how to spell it correctly), and she traveled alone. What make me surprise that she is Muslim. Yes, she is Muslim. I rarely meet Muslim from China, ups yes… I met one man during the youth camp in Jervis Bay; he studies at ANU, but he grown up here, in Australia. Xa Lie is doing research at University of Melbourne, one year research. She is a medical doctor, specialization in eyes.

We were talking many subjects. One of it is about food in Australia. As a Muslim, we find the same difficulties, finding the ‘no pork’ food in our diet. It is easy to differ between pork and other meat such as chicken, beef and lamb, we just read the label. However, many Muslims always raise question such as is it slaughtered in the name of Allah? Is it slaughtered in a good manner? When it is being slaughtered, it is not mix with pig? And so on. Furthermore, emulsifiers (sort of thing that mix in the food as one of the ingredients) make us confused. For example, some people said that emulsifier 471 is made from vegetables, but some people said that it is made from animal fat, so it is haram as well. What was Xa Lie’s opinion on aforementioned confusion, she said that there is a Chinese proverb; it says that if you do not see, it means that it is clean. In addition, she said that as long as no pork in our diet, it is acceptable. In my opinion, I will agree with her opinion. What do you think?
Cheers,
Bababna Ghia