ECONOMICS AND TRADE | Achieving growth through open markets
07 August 2008
A Halal Meat Business Thrives in New York
Taken over by founder's son, the shop now has more non-Muslim customers
New York -- In the days before major Islamic holidays, there is an unusual sight in Ozone Park, an outlying corner of New York. A long line of people wait beside a pen holding several hundred goats and lambs between low buildings.
One after another, customers choose an animal, which is weighed and then slaughtered according to Islamic dietary law: A butcher utters a few words in praise of Allah before cutting the animal's throat.
This is Madani Halal, a thriving family business founded in 1996 by an immigrant from Bangladesh and taken over in 2003 by his American-born son. In part due to continuing growth in the immigrant population in the United States, the business is expanding and is about to begin a wholesale poultry operation after a $2 million investment.
Riaz Uddin, 73, has been in America since he arrived in Boston in 1956. He worked as a dishwasher and then a cook in a kosher restaurant. He married a Catholic woman from Puerto Rico and opened two bars in New York. It was a classic American success story, but he wasn’t happy.
In 1992 the need for open-heart surgery led Uddin to reappraise his life. One day, in emotional despair, he drove to one of New York's piers. "I looked out at the water and asked, ‘what I am doing with my life?’"
Uddin remembered a Bangladeshi poet who wrote that it is never too late to change. He stopped his heavy smoking and his habit of gambling at horse races. His eldest daughter, who teaches Islamic studies at an American university, suggested he use his experience from the kosher restaurant to open a halal meat business. (Halal, which means in conformity with Islamic rules, is similar to the kosher dietary rules of Judaism.)
Madani Halal opened in 1996 in this neighborhood of auto-repair shops and small factories in the Ozone Park section of the New York borough of Queens. Over the last decade, the Italian, Irish and Jewish families who lived in the single-family homes nearby gradually have been replaced by immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. A small Islamic prayer center with a green façade opened around the corner from Uddin's business.
Inside the premises of Madani Halal are the constant clucking and chirping sounds of chickens, ducks, quail, pigeons, guinea birds, pheasants -- in all 25 varieties of caged poultry to cater to the preferences of immigrants from many different countries. Most of the fowl come from farms in Pennsylvania run by members of the Amish community. Goats and lambs come from free-range farms in Texas.
THE NEXT GENERATION
A few years ago Uddin, who then was approaching 70, decided he could not run the business much longer and considered selling it. His only son, Imran, was working as a media buyer at the McCann-Erickson advertising agency but was growing dissatisfied. "It was fun going to the parties, and I earned lots of money," he recalled. "But it was a ‘plastic’ business."
Although the younger Uddin had not been particularly interested in his father's Bangladeshi culture or Muslim religion, he decided to try running the business. He soon found it deeply satisfying. "Of course it's a business," Imran Uddin, 31, told America.gov. But the religious nature of the business brings more to his work. “I saw how important the business is for the community; how they rely on it.
"It's got me more involved in my culture and my faith."
On a recent morning, an immigrant from Dubai came to buy a goat for a feast at his daughter's wedding. The man, who declined to give his name, said he brought his business here because Uddin appeared to be a good Muslim. "I've observed him in the mosque," the customer said. He added that the meat here is fresh. "It's cut in front of my eyes, in an Islamic way."
The younger Uddin has modernized the business, introducing computers for inventory and billing and establishing a Web site. Even so, he often slaughters the larger animals himself. He said he first did so because he had to overcome skepticism of established clients, some of whom questioned his commitment to maintaining a strict halal approach.
The business has grown to 13 employees. Surprisingly, two-thirds of sales are to non-Muslims. Many non-Muslim immigrants from Third World countries are used to butcher shops where they can see the live animals before they are killed, so they come to Madani Halal to buy meat. Occasionally, members of a conservative Jewish congregation buy meat here. "Jewish and Islamic [dietary] law is so similar," said Imran Uddin. "They trust us."
The halal meat sector has virtually exploded across American communities recently. Thirty years ago, there were only one or two part-time halal butchers in New York, said Muhammad Chaudry, president of the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America, one of a half-dozen organizations that certify halal food. Today, there are more than 100 full-time halal businesses in the area, he said.
Since taking over his father's business five years ago, Imran Uddin bought a neighboring building for $1 million and invested another $1 million in shiny new equipment to slaughter and package halal poultry. He expects to hire eight more employees to run it.
The elder Uddin said now he can retire happily: "My son will carry on my dream."
More information on the business can be found at Madani Halal's Web site.
Information on an award-winning documentary on Imran and Riaz Uddin, A Son’s Sacrifice, can be found on the producers’ Web site.
Podcast with director of documentary film "A Son's Sacrifice" (MP 3)