Sancho greeted Ricote…. They stretched out on the ground … they set out bread, salt, knives, nuts, pieces of cheese, and bare ham bones that could not be gnawed but could still be sucked. There was no lack of olives, dried without any brine but good-tasting and flavorful. What stood out the most on the field of that banquet, however, were six wineskins, for each of them took one out of his bag; even the good Ricote, transformed from a Morisco … took out his wineskin, comparable in size to the other five. They began to eat with great pleasure, savoring each mouthful slowly, just a little of each thing. And then all at once, and all at the same time, they raised their arms and the wineskins into the air.
(Cervantes 2003: 812)
This scene from Cervantes’ Don Quijote is commonly referenced by scholars interested in exploring the theme of the ‘other,’ the Muslim or morisco (Muslim convert to Christianity) in Cervantes’ work. David Dominguez-Navarro claims that this shared meal between Sancho, a native Spaniard, and Ricote, a morisco, demonstrates the ‘level of assimilation the Moriscos reached’ (Dominguez-Navarro 2011: 289). Ricote, who has abandoned halal dietary practices, now has the ability to savour quintessentially Spanish cuisine such as ‘ham bones and wineskins’ that were once forbidden to him. Here, Ricote crosses a religious and cultural boundary through consumption of traditional Spanish food and drink. His newly adopted food practices signal his ability to integrate into Spanish society. This scene illustrates the tension between Spanish and Muslim foodways; thus the halal/pork binary, a concept that guides much of the following analysis, appears in Spain’s most renowned work of literature. Olivia Remie Constable’s (2013) ‘Food and Meaning: Christian Understandings of Muslim Food and Food Ways in Spain, 1250–1550,’ explores how, historically, food established boundaries between the Christian and Muslim communities. By the fifteenth century, in the context of rising anti-Islamic sentiment, pork was a symbol of Christianity while adherence to halal was a signal of one’s Muslim status. In Spain’s contemporary context, Muslims’ avoidance of pork and alcohol and their patronage of halal food establishments are indications of their cultural and religious difference. What is more, their dependence on halal foodways and their adjustment to a new food environment are prominent features of their immigrant experience. Muslim immigrants’ discussion of the difficulties around observing halal food practices, their negotiation of the forbidden versus the permissible, suggests that this food-mediated religious and cultural barrier continues to carry weight in contemporary Spain.
In Spain, Muslims’ preoccupation around maintaining halal eating habits and a halal-conscious way of life is intensified owing to the omnipresence of pork products and dishes, forbidden food items. Today, Iberian ham is an emblem of Spanish national identity and it is common to find it displayed in Spanish restaurants and bars. This chapter looks closely at Muslim immigrants’ dependence on the kebab industry as a means of maintaining halal eating practices in Spain. The desire to maintain a halal diet and the new pressures of the Spanish food system also influence restaurant owners’ business decisions. Drawing on the voices of customers and restaurateurs, this chapter highlights their experiences engaging with and/or avoiding elements of Spanish food culture and explores how the negotiation of halal in Spain is connected to identity-forging in the new country. Such an analysis looks at the halal concept not only as a product in an emerging ‘diasporic, religious market’ (Bergeaud-Blackler, Fischer & Lever 2015: 13), but as a foodway and food behaviour that is measured against the mainstream food culture and thus raises questions of belonging. Finally, this chapter illustrates how in Spain, similar to other European nations, the halal concept has been drawn into food politics.
According to various statistical sources, Muslims, both Spanish nationals and foreigners, constitute between 2.1 per cent and 3 per cent of Spain’s total population of approximately 46.5 million (Govan 2016; Euro-Islam 2013; Frayer 2015a, b). Muslim immigrants constitute about 24 per cent of Spain’s total immigrant population of 4.6 million (Femmine & Alameda 2017). Drawing on 2012 census data, Euro-Islam (2013) states that the total number of Muslims in Spain is 1.6 million of which 1.1 million are foreigners and approximately 465,000 are Spanish nationals. In other words, nearly 70 per cent of Muslims in Spain are immigrants while approximately 30 per cent are Spanish nationals. Euro-Islam (2013: 1) explains that ‘in terms of national origin, the two main Muslim groups in Spain are the Spanish and the Moroccan, adding now the growing Pakistani group.’ Of the total Muslim immigrant population, Moroccans make up nearly 50 per cent, and the remaining 20 per cent are of other nationalities (Euro-Islam 2013), such as Pakistani, Senegalese, and Algerian immigrants (Bravo 2014). Statistics from the National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística—INE) confirm that Moroccans form not only the largest Muslim community in Spain, but also constitute the largest overall immigrant group with a population of 747,872 as of January 2017 (Femmine & Alameda 2017; INE 2017). It should be noted that in his discussion of Islam in Spain, Fernando Bravo recognises the challenges of determining the precise Muslim population in Spain and argues that ‘since statistics often do not distinguish population according to faith, we can only estimate quantity using national origin or national identity as a sign of religious adherence,’ with an implied certain margin of error (Bravo 2014). Approximately 465,000 Muslims in Spain are Spanish nationals. Part of this figure includes Muslims of different nationalities who immigrated to Spain and have obtained Spanish nationality. Nevertheless, some portion of Muslim Spanish nationals are Spanish converts to Islam. Salman Al-Ansari’s (2013) article on converts to Islam states that on average the Islamic Center in Madrid, Spain, sees 170 Spanish converts a year.
Owing to Morocco’s historical ties and proximity to Spain, it is no surprise that Moroccans form the largest body of immigrants and the highest percentage of Muslims in Spain. However, in recent decades the Pakistani population has grown tremendously. As of January 2017, the Pakistani population had reached 80,000 (INE 2017). Pakistanis began arriving in the 1970s and family networks were established by the first wave to settle in Spain. In Almería, where ethnographic semi-structured interviews were carried out, the Pakistani population is predominantly male business owners. Both Moroccans and Pakistanis engage primarily in the Spanish commerce and services sector (International Markets Bureau 2011). The restaurateurs I spoke to arrived in Spain as early as 26 and as late as 6 years ago. In almost all cases, they had relatives who also immigrated to Europe. According to various restaurateurs, there are 23 kebab restaurants in Almería capital alone and Pakistanis tend to dominate the kebab industry in this region.
With the growth of the Muslim immigrant community in Spain, there has been a corresponding need for food establishments that observe halal. Similar to other European nations, Spain has seen the rapid development of a kebab industry, which has not only become popular street food, but offers halal meat, thereby meeting the religious and cultural needs of Muslim immigrants. There is scholarship that investigates halal food production, marketing, food establishments, and their significance in the lives of Muslim immigrants living elsewhere in Europe (Bonne & Vermeir 2007; Bonne & Verbeke 2008; Wright & Annes 2013). However, the case of Spain remains underexplored. As background to this investigation of the kebab industry’s significance for Muslims, I trace its emergence in Europe. I also reference several studies that explore both the factors that compel many Muslims to observe halal food practices and the positive impact of halal fast-food restaurants, or ‘halal environments’ (Nasir & Pereira 2008). I then turn to the case of Spain and to my own ethnographic findings to investigate the dynamics that unfold around the concept of halal.
The kebab industry as we know it today is a product of the Turkish immigrant community’s experience in Germany. Ayse Caglar’s seminal essay, ‘McDöner: Döner Kebap and the Social Positioning Struggle of German Turks,’ explores how the kebab became the iconic ethnic food of the Turkish community and uncovers the kebab’s ‘field of connotations … the social and political ideas projected onto it’ (Caglar 2013: 220). According to Caglar (2013), with 140,000 Turkish migrants, Berlin is considered the largest ‘Turkish city’ outside of Turkey. Turkish migrants in the guest worker system opened up Turkish kebab stalls, with the first ‘döner Imbiss’ stand appearing in Berlin in 1975 (Caglar 2013).
As Turkish immigrants and other Muslim communities settled in countries such as Sweden and Belgium, the kebab industry eventually spread across Europe becoming part of the larger halal industry. John Lever and Mara Miele (2012: 1) refer to the halal industry as an emerging ‘religious marketplace’ that represents the ‘supply side theory of religion.’ As the kebab industry grows more popular, it is becoming a significant business niche as well as a food source for Muslim immigrant populations across Europe. France, home to the largest Muslim community in Europe, has one of the largest European national halal markets, estimated to be at 13 billion USD (Gorák-Sosnowska 2010). In their research on Muslims’ dependence on the halal industry, Wilson and Liu (2010) cite the need for an increased availability of halal products as Muslim migration continues. In fact, Spain has seen the recent emergence of halal meat companies, such as Soyal, that distribute meat to kebab restaurants throughout the country (Vallarino & Ferrer 2017).
Eating is considered ritualistic and a significant part of a person’s worship of God under Islam. The concepts of halal (permissible) and haram (forbidden) are fundamental to the Islamic dietary code (Riaz & Chaudry 2003; see also Chapter 2, this volume). When it is difficult to determine whether a food item is permissible or forbidden, it is called mashbuh. As stated explicitly in the Qur’an, pork and its derivatives, blood, and carrion are forbidden. In their 2011 study on consumers’ awareness and attitudes towards halal food in Pakistan, Salman and Siddiqui (2011) find that Muslims are confronted with a ‘web of relationships’ that influences their social and consumer behaviour. They argue that consuming non-halal food can lead to isolation from the Muslim community thereby affecting relationships with peers and family members (Salman & Siddiqui 2011). Recognition of the social import attached to halal in their countries of origin is essential to understanding Muslim immigrants’ commitment to maintaining halal when living abroad.
During the summer of 2015, semi-structured interviews were carried out in Almería, a city of 190,000 in south-eastern Andalucía, Spain. This chapter focuses on interviews with three Pakistani kebab restaurateurs and four Moroccan customers as a means of investigating Muslims’ dependence on the kebab industry in Spain, their preoccupation with maintaining halal eating practices, and the tensions between Spanish and Muslim foodways. Nadir, a Pakistani kebab restaurant owner, is 35 years old and has lived in Spain for 18 years. He owns three kebab restaurants and a franchise that sells halal meat to kebab restaurants throughout Andalucía. Nadir claims that the first Pakistani-owned kebab restaurant opened in Barcelona in 2011. Given the kebab industry’s Turkish–German roots, Nadir’s franchise originally sold a German brand of meat, but he currently sells a Spanish brand. Nadir claims that with the industry’s rapid spread and tremendous popularity, there are now numerous factories in Spain that process and distribute halal meat. In Spain, it is now common to see menus for ‘McDonor’ or ‘Doner Kebab’ in young people’s homes since the food is cheap and quick. Some restaurateurs told me that there are Turkish kebab owners in Almería, but the majority of these fast-food restaurants are Pakistani-owned. Nevertheless, Germany remains a cornerstone of the industry. For example, Nadir has travelled to Germany to attend instructive courses on kebab food production and restaurant procedures.
Mukhtar, the Pakistani owner of Alhambra Kebab, entered the kebab industry through pre-existing familial networks in Spain. Trained by his brother, Mukhtar learned how to work the machinery in the kebab restaurant. He comments, ‘It’s Turkish food, but Pakistanis are seen everywhere working in them.’ Nadir similarly states that ‘Pakistan is the community with the most kebabs after the Turkish.’ In fact, Pakistanis in Almería have become associated with kebab restaurants to such an extent that one Moroccan woman I spoke to referred to them as ‘Pakistani restaurants.’
Based on my interviews, frequent conversations with kebab restaurateurs, and participant observation, it became evident that Pakistani immigrants’ desire to maintain halal practices is a driving force behind their involvement in the kebab industry. Nadir explained that in a Pakistani or Indian restaurant it would be necessary to sell alcohol, whereas in kebab fast-food restaurants it is not. According to both Nadir and Mukhtar, non-Muslim customers are more willing to accept that alcohol is unavailable at such eateries. From a restaurateur’s perspective, the obligation to keep halal practices in the workplace makes certain business endeavours challenging. Nadir says, ‘If your own [cuisine] does not work in Spain, you have to pursue another path.’ Kebab restaurants generally offer only halal meat—chicken and beef—making them the ideal non-contaminating workplace for Pakistani Muslims and preferred eating establishments for other Muslim immigrants in Spain. The kebab restaurants I visited in Spain were thus ‘halal’ spaces that suited the religious and gustatory needs of owners, employees, and customers.
The kebab industry’s ability to cater to the Muslim community’s religious and gastronomic needs is a major factor of its success. Both Nadir and Mukhtar told me that 50 per cent of their customers are Spanish nationals and 50 per cent are Moroccan Muslim immigrants. Mukhtar added that Moroccans tend to come during the day, while Spaniards visit late at night. In fact, Mukhtar uses some Arabic phrases with his Moroccan customers and knows how to tell them that his meat is halal. Muhktar’s decision to learn Arabic signals his recognition of a shared ‘halal consciousness’ among Muslim immigrants of different origins (Hashim & Othman 2011).
According to Nadir and his employee Hamal, a 28-year-old from Pakistan, Muslim customers always verify that the meat in their kebab restaurant is halal. Nadir says that although his restaurant has been open for three years, Moroccan customers continue to ask before they order because ‘they do not trust that it is halal.’ Hamal similarly contends that customers first ask, ‘Excuse me, is this food halal?’ at which point he assures them that everything in the restaurant is ‘100 percent halal.’ Mukhtar similarly finds that Muslim tourists from France and Germany must be convinced that the restaurant’s food is halal before ordering. All three restaurateurs witness customers’ preoccupation around observing halal practices on a daily basis. This halal consciousness is evident in customers’ wider shopping habits as well. One Moroccan customer explained to me that she buys halal meat from a shop which requires her to travel far outside her new neighbourhood. On another occasion, a Moroccan customer entered Nadir’s kebab restaurant as he waited for the neighbouring halal meat shop to open. He explained that he wanted to buy meat and fermented milk, ‘that many Arabs buy it.’ These examples reveal how in Spain, an environment where halal food is not as easy to come by, some Muslim immigrants become concerned about their food purchases. For these customers, obtaining halal meat and other traditional foods remains a firmly established practice in Spain.
My conversation with Kadin, a customer at Alhambra Kebab, further illustrates Muslim immigrants’ reliance on the kebab industry. Kadin, originally from Morocco, arrived in Spain by boat in 2003. Sitting and eating a dürüm beef kebab, he told me, ‘We eat this or nothing.’ He explained that his mother and sister, who normally cook Moroccan food at home, were visiting Morocco and that, ‘Now I eat outside because my mother is away. We always eat our own food. It’s important.’ Thus, normally Kadin eats Moroccan dishes prepared by the women in his family. In their absence, he relies on kebab restaurants for halal meat options. Kadin’s example demonstrates how the kebab fast-food industry enables many Muslims to eat in public while adhering to halal dietary law.
Furthermore, my discussions with Saru, Mukhtar’s nephew, illustrate the challenge of living out one’s Muslim identity from a consumer perspective. Saru told me, ‘We do not eat out a lot at Spanish restaurants. It’s pork and it’s not halal.’ We discussed the predominance of pork in Spain and I asked him if it is difficult to find adequate food. He explained, ‘We have to look at the things in Mercadona supermarkets to see if there is any pork contained in them and to see if we can eat them … in Pakistan there is no pork.’ Saru’s comments exemplify that Spain is not as far along as other European countries such as France and Belgium, where halal products are more readily available at chain supermarkets (Bonne &Verbeke 2008). His account mirrors Roberta Giovine’s (2013) findings that Muslims’ difficulty maintaining halal eating practices in Italy greatly defines their experience as immigrants. Giovine recognises how Muslims’ food needs shift from ‘mainstream to minority’ once they enter Europe. Saru’s comments further reveal the boundaries set in place by conflicting Spanish and Muslim food cultures and how the halal/pork tension is now a salient reminder of his transition from one country to another.
Not only must customers contend with the halal/pork binary, but Muslim restaurateurs sometimes encounter haram food and therefore exhibit a heightened halal consciousness in the workplace. Before coming to Almería, Hamal worked in a combined kebab pizzeria restaurant where Spanish customers often asked for Iberian ham toppings. He explained how ‘normally Muslims cannot sell pizza with these ingredients,’ but the need to cater to Spanish taste took precedence. According to Hamal, one solution was to ask the only non-Muslim employee to prepare orders containing ham. Muslim employees would ask, ‘Hey look, could you please prepare this pizza?’ This account exemplifies the negotiations that have to be made when labour, religion, food, and national taste intersect. While the owners in Hamal’s previous job catered to Spanish taste by offering ham, this is not the case in Nadir’s halal kebab shop. Nevertheless, Hamal finds that Spanish customers will ask if the restaurant offers ham along with kebabs. He recognises that the kebab restaurant is a space that deviates from the Spanish culinary norm. He makes it a point to explain: ‘I don’t say, “I don’t like pork” and “It is prohibited in Islam.”’ Perhaps Hamal believes that sharing his views on pork consumption would be unprofessional, elicit negative responses, and signal his ‘otherness.’
As previously discussed, kebab restaurants’ embodiment of halal practices makes them an ideal work setting for Pakistani Muslim employees. However, a food industry in Spain that observes halal dietary restrictions brings with it the challenge of confronting tensions between Spanish and Muslim food cultures in determining which practices to uphold. In my first conversation with Nadir, he described the predicament of not being able to sell alcohol in his restaurant. Similarly, after spending time in Mukhtar’s kebab restaurant, I observed several customers asking with surprise, ‘You don’t have beer?’ This contrast between Spanish and Muslim customs regarding food led Nadir to remain in the fast-food industry and refrain from opening a South Asian restaurant. Nadir claimed that he is not bothered by this limitation, that ‘this is all strictly business.’ However, there is clearly an emotional element at work. He stated that if he ever sold alcohol in his business, it would hurt his parents back in Pakistan particularly because ‘word gets out from the Pakistani community in Almería.’ In his case, the need to abide by Islamic dietary law and honour family values needed to be weighed against his desire for business success. Nadir’s account is also indicative of the power of the Pakistani community’s ‘web of relationships’ (Salman & Siddiqui 2011: 642). Although he is far from home, the local Pakistani community is a reminder of his family’s values and a connection to home, making it more difficult for him to deviate from firmly held practices.
While Nadir is not willing to sell alcohol in his restaurant, he expresses a personally flexible attitude towards disobeying some halal food practices. He explains that pork or pork fat cannot always be avoided, otherwise ‘it would be impossible to eat in Spain.’ While his friends and employees tend to rely on Pakistani food to avoid haram dishes, Nadir accepts the uncertainty that goes along with eating in non-halal restaurants. He differentiates himself from other Pakistanis unwilling to deviate from halal food practices. However, while Nadir demonstrates a modified halal adherence, he senses that he is a minority within the Pakistani community in Spain, especially when he attends social gatherings in people’s homes. Nadir’s case demonstrates the complexity of halal consciousness in business decisions and social interactions, in other words when negotiating public and private spheres.
Ultimately, the kebab restaurant’s embodiment of halal food practices marks it as an alternative space, one that digresses from mainstream food culture. Magdalena Nowaczek-Walczak’s Muslim restaurateur-interviewees in Poland found themselves in a similar predicament as Nadir and Mukhtar. They admitted that although they were aware that Polish customers ‘would happily consume beer, they did not want to show support for a haram food item’ (Nowaczek-Walczak 2011: 122). As an employee, Hamal identifies the conflicting experiences of Muslims and non-Muslims, noting that while Moroccan customers always ask whether food is halal, for Spaniards ‘this is not a problem.’ His comments reveal how foodways shed light on new cultural dynamics and imbalances that arise in a new country. Clearly, maintaining halal food practices is at the forefront of many Pakistani and Moroccan Muslims’ minds and thus becomes a metaphor for maintaining a way of life that contrasts sharply from that of the majority population.
For some interviewees, their newfound dependence on the halal kebab industry and concern around obtaining halal food items are reminders of their changed circumstances. What is more, interviewees such as Hamal perceive halal to be a marker of an alternative identity in the Spanish context. In several European nations and recently in Spain, halal food establishments and the concept of eating halal have come to represent the unwanted presence of Muslim immigrants, both construed as threats to national cohesion. Food imagery frequently enters political discourse, becoming a coded way to speak disparagingly about Muslim immigrant communities (Wright & Annes 2013). Owing to Spain’s shorter history as a country of immigration, there is less literature on the subject. However, just as in neighbouring European countries, such dynamics are present in Spain and are evident in the media.
Spain’s largest Muslim communities have settled in Andalucía and Catalonia, contributing to higher rates of Islamophobia in these regions (INE 2017). Lauren Frayer (2015a: 1) states that ‘although Muslims account for about 3 per cent of Spain’s population, they make up nearly 10 per cent of the people in the coastal Catalan provinces of Tarragona and neighboring Barcelona—the highest proportion in mainland Spain.’ Recent news articles reveal rhetoric against the halal kebab industry on the part of the predominantly anti-immigrant, conservative Popular Party (PP). The kebab industry’s ability to employ and serve Muslims, and its overall reminder of the changing demographics in Spain, has led to proposals for stricter laws aimed at preventing the industry’s expansion. Thus, as previously seen in Norway and France, some Spanish politicians have begun to use the rapid growth of the kebab industry as justification for anti-immigrant policies (Thomas & Selimovic 2015; Wright & Annes 2013).
The authors of the European Islamophobia Report note that in Barcelona, during the 2015 election campaigns, the PP put forth slogans such as ‘Do not let Raval [one of Barcelona’s immigrant neighbourhoods] become an Islamic ghetto’ (Bayrakli & Hafez 2016). In another neighbourhood, the party stated, ‘Stop the proliferation of call shops, dollar stores and kebab restaurants … no to the great mosque of Cornellà’ (Bayrakli & Hafez 2016). These slogans mark politicians’ desire to limit the expression of Islam both in places of worship and in public food spaces (Bayrakli & Hafez 2016). Similarly, in 2015, a law was proposed in the Spanish municipality of Tarragona seeking to limit the formation of ‘ghettos’ by restricting the number of new kebab shops in the region. According to Frayer, under the proposed law, commercial licences would not be available for new kebab shops, dollar stores, or Internet cafes located within 500 yards of existing ones—overwhelmingly affecting Muslim business owners (Frayer 2015a, b). Alejandro Fernandez, a leader of the PP in Tarragona, insisted that such a law would ‘protect traditional Spanish businesses from unfair competition.’ Fernandez claimed that businesses such as kebab restaurants are seen as a threat to ‘authentic and superior’ Spanish food establishments. He further argued that ‘the build-up of these kinds of businesses leads to an inferior quality of public space and a process of deterioration’ (Frayer 2015b: 1). According to this viewpoint, the very presence of Muslim-owned businesses is seen as a detriment to Spanish society rather than a sign of newcomer economic contribution and increased consumer choice for nationals, immigrants, and tourists alike.
The anti-immigrant rhetoric underlying this proposed law is undeniable. Moreover, the lack of similar outcry over the many Peruvian, Mexican, Chilean, Argentinean, and Brazilian eateries in the region may also be indicative of the presence of anti-Muslim bias in Spanish politics. As previously noted, Muslim immigrants constitute only approximately 1.1 million of the total 4.6 million immigrants in Spain, and although certain areas of Catalonia have a higher proportion of Muslim immigrants, the overall immigrant population there remains non-Muslim (Femmine & Alameda 2017; INE 2017). Given this picture of immigration demographics, a focus on the supposed dangers of kebab restaurants is a clear indication of anti-Islamic sentiment.
By targeting their businesses and limiting access to halal food establishments, these conservative politicians hope to stifle Muslims’ ability to thrive in Spain. Perhaps the most interesting element of this recent conflict is the reaction from kebab restaurant owners themselves. Nuari Benzawi, an Algerian immigrant, expressed his resentment towards the proposed Tarragona law. In a conversation with the L.A. Times, Benzawi declared the following: ‘My tomatoes are Spanish. So are the potatoes I sell. Do I need to sell pork to be a traditional Spanish business? Do I need to sell wine?’ (Frayer 2015b: 1). Benzawi understands that Muslim businesses are being stigmatised because they do not fit into the paradigm of Spanish food culture. He recognises the halal/pork binary and understands that because he does not sell items forbidden to his community his business is viewed as ‘non-Spanish.’ Drawing on food imagery, Benzawi is able to name the discrimination he experiences and in so doing highlights the connection between food and the question of national belonging in Spain.
Benzawi’s statements echo conversations I had with restaurateurs in Almería regarding their restaurant practices. Nadir similarly grappled with the question of catering to Spanish taste, which would mean deviating from Islamic dietary law. Given that they are run by immigrants, use halal meat, and normally do not sell alcohol or pork, kebab restaurants do not conform to the idea of the traditional Spanish food establishment. In this politicised context, the kebab restaurant itself becomes a representation of the Muslim ‘other.’ Owing to manipulative political rhetoric, Islamophobic stances, and the existence of a halal/pork binary, the kebab restaurant can be cast as a space that runs counter to traditional Spanish values. While Spaniards, particularly youth, are also patrons of kebab restaurants, their decision is primarily economic and does not stem from a reliance on halal food. Thus, the image of the kebab eatery as a space of congregation for Muslims, a space decidedly ‘non-Spanish,’ is used to justify the conservative party’s proposal to hinder Muslims’ business success and limit their visibility in certain regions of Spain. It should be noted, however, that this ‘kebab law’ was ultimately not passed, which suggests that anti-halal rhetoric is not yet as pernicious in Spain as it is in France, where measures have been successfully enacted to eliminate halal food options from public food spaces.
This work underscores how the kebab industry in Southern Spain is serving the Muslim immigrant community by meeting its religious and cultural gustatory needs. The industry is sustained, in part, by Muslim immigrants’ halal consciousness; interviews with restaurateurs and customers begin to shed light on new cultural dynamics taking place in the overall Spanish foodscape. The kebab restaurant in Spain offers a case study of supply and demand and identity-forging in the context of migration. The halal consciousness and halal/pork binary concepts are useful in tracing Muslim customers’ and restaurateurs’ negotiation of two divergent food cultures. Food purchasing and business decisions require Muslim immigrants to weigh their halal consciousness against the dominant food culture. Choosing when to adopt new food practices or maintain traditional ones is part of the process of place-making in a new context. This tension is readily apparent to Muslim immigrants. Some far-right politicians who detect this heightened dependence on halal seek to prevent its proliferation. The recent emergence of Spanish halal meat companies does suggest that halal is beginning to be incorporated into the Spanish economic market (Vallarino & Ferrer 2017). However, the question remains, to what extent can and will a halal consciousness become integrated and accepted in Spain as part of a more complex, more inclusive cultural image of itself? This study of modest dimensions signals the need for further explorations of the Spanish kebab industry, the emerging halal food market, Muslims’ purchasing and consumer habits (including those of Spanish converts to Islam), and anti-halal rhetoric. Such investigations are critical to understanding the challenges of living out one’s Muslim identity in contemporary Spain.
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