The word Halal has now acquired a degree of use also in the Italian media and has begun to appear in the daily conversations of non-Muslims. In its current use, the notion linked to the word appears to mainly evoke an Islam consisting of obligations and prohibitions that are peremptory and undisputable, dictating to the followers of this religion, rules of behaviour mainly concerning food. According to most people, Halal is what Muslims may eat and drink without disobeying their precepts. To a certain extent, Italians have started to consider these precepts a given, also because the cultural “areas of contact” (Hermans, Kempen 1998) are multiplying, and because Muslims are a significant segment of the internal market as well as a vast outlet for Italian exports, an aspect now attributed legitimate importance, but that probably conceals the complexity of the issue since it is linked to Muslims’ relationship with their precepts. (Rhazzali 2014).

In reality, the word Halal is part of a complex lexical and a conceptual system that is particularly refined in its more authentic and articulated configuration. The opposition between Halal (allowed) and Haram (not allowed) creates a broad area within which there are many intermediate words, such as, for example, Makruh (inadvisable) and Mubah (admissible), which allow one to contextualise the various forms of behaviour regarding an inclination to contribute positively or negatively to a relationship of a complex physical and spiritual order in both individuals and communities. Leaving aside the aspect usually addressed, that of vetoes concerning some types of meat or drinks, this system of precepts is best addressed from a theological perspective in which the believer is called upon to elaborate ways in which the best use of oneself can be made, in view of a more active and successful obedience to divine will.

One must specify that, unlike what is often believed, Islam, peace and submission to Allah, has nothing to do with a mortifying subjection to a punishing God. It is rather aimed at humankind’s full acceptance of the creative generosity of a God who is first of all Rahman (merciful) and Rahim (clement) (Rhazzali, 2010). Consequently, more than materially preventing certain forms of nourishment, the rule is aimed at committing the believer to an exercise of organisation oriented towards the highest of instincts and, in general, the satisfaction of personal needs. Repression per se is not a value, while what is essential is the capability of posing limits for oneself and ensuring this respect is morally fruitful, encouraging an ensemble of virtuous practices. Of course, in the history of Islam, and in many current contexts, there has been no lack of exasperatedly rigorist versions that give Islam, in general, an ascetic and even warrior image to which it cannot in any way be reduced. This is all the more evident the more Muslim communities are able to give importance to an in-depth analysis of the wealth there is in the theological proposal and the spiritual importance of the Koran and the traditions inspired by it.

This perspective becomes even more evident when one considers a moment that is essential for Islam, such as Ramadan, for which the rules concerning the relationship with food become a decisive element in this Rokn (pillar). Ramadan is the month in the lunar calendar devoted to purification, an objective referred to with the undoubtedly difficult precept establishing that no food or drink should be taken from dawn until the sun has completely set. Significantly, this temporal period, in spite of the difficulty of the commitment, is experienced in the Islamic world as one not without joyful aspects. After the sun has set, and then at the end of the entire month, a festive moment begins, in which sociality achieves its most intense moments and in which the gastronomic preparation of food occurs with special vigour. Ramadan should in fact be perceived within the framework of an ensemble of equilibria extended throughout the whole year as well as a whole lifetime. It constitutes a periodical intensification of life’s religious dimension and as such exalts both the effort made to respect divine will and the joy that rewards the order thus achieved. It is surely a more attentive observation of the theological aspects, and the concrete practice of Ramadan, that could prove how much is equivocal in a dark vision of Islam and its precepts in particular. One must emphasise how the Koran does not present its precepts concerning food, nor fasting during Ramadan as a pure form of punishment. In other words, there is no disregard for the body, but rather an intention to achieve “real” health. The Koran is particularly attentive in envisaging a series of exceptions set out to prevent respect for these rules resulting in serious moral or physical damage (for example exceptions for travellers, the sick, pregnant mothers, children, as well as suspending all prohibitions concerning food and drink considered Haram when emergency circumstances justify resorting to them).

Moderation as far as food is concerned, which can also include prolonged fasting, does not presuppose any kind of contempt for food or for the body. It is through correct behaviour and, even better, a wise relationship with material food, that access to spiritual food becomes available. This is even more evident in the relationship that is created between food ingested respecting the norms and the social dimension. Paradoxically, bans and obligations end up acting as a stimulus for gastronomic evolution and the enrichment of food’s cultural meanings , as happens in other religions (think of the great contribution provided by convent cuisine to Christian Europe’s gastronomic traditions or to the relationship between festivities and culinary inventions in the evolution of the Jewish cuisine).

In a scenario such as that of the Islamic diaspora in Europe (Saint-Blancat, 1995), and in Italy in particular, this complexity of religious and cultural reasons often seems to vanish and the intercultural comparison with welcoming contexts that could easily take advantage of this, ends up registering the more external and simplified aspects. This occurs not only in exchanges between the diffident, curious and, at times, openly friendly Europeans, but within the very relationship that, in many cases, Muslims have with their own religion, of which they at times perceive the aspects more reducible to external behaviour than the immensity of the spiritual experience linked to it. On this subject one cannot neglect the fact that in Italian and European state policy, the management of religious and cultural diversity is often aimed at encouraging forms of reductive identity characterisation, in which the acknowledgment of real cultural physiognomies and their intense evolution in Europe risks being resolved with a generic multiculturalism. It is no coincidence that the fluctuation between resistance and welcoming seen in host social and institutional contexts, has found one of its most an explicit test cases in the relationship with Islamic eating traditions, ranging from acknowledging or not Muslims’ right to have their food requirements met in state organisations, to the not always unopposed spreading of Muslim gastronomic entrepreneurship (Saint-Blancat, Rhazzali, Bevilacqua, 2008) often degraded to pure ethnic business, to rising interest in drafting laws aimed at making halal something more similar to a brand than a moral principle (Bergeaud-Blackler, Bruno, 2010). And yet, the gastronomy proposed by the various branches of Muslim traditions is meeting with serious interest and not only from European Muslims, to the point of having become a fully accepted part of our common gastronomic landscape.

Beyond the political rhetoric that often and incredibly has used Muslim food customs as the nucleus of aggressive social issues, and beyond the exclusively business aspects of Halal as an opportunity to help the food sector, perhaps there is the appearance of a widespread and intercultural experience of taste from which one could restart in order to also recover, in addition to material signs, the wealth and variety of a cultural filigree that has grown over time, with a constant osmosis between food for the body and food for the soul.

Translation by Francesca Simmons