Written by Lanassa Lyra
Located in the western side of Chiba Prefecture, Chiba University has been known as one of the public university that accept a high number of various International students every year ranging from Italians, Germans, Hungarian, Arabians, Iranians, Americans, Turks, Uighurs, Indonesians, Mongolians, Chinese, Koreans), and from some of the countries in Central Asia such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. I am one of the International student myself and usually this International atmosphere could actually be experienced when coming to what we International students would call the “International Area of Chiba Univerisity” stretching from the building of International Supporting Desk where many of us usually come to learn Japanese, to the English House near the Student Support Building where many of us would usually mingle together, meeting and eating while chatting in English with other students and also with the Japanese students. Also one of the area that will surely be visited by us is the school Cafetaria.
We realized that the number of Moslems in our university is high, and that is why some free spaces within the university compound might have been transformed into Mushallas (a small praying room), and that might be why we also have our own mosque established near the university.
As the number of the International Moslem students that come to the university is increasing every year, Chiba University which recently is advancing to become the Super Global University has decided to give the full support concerning the diet of Moslem students that consisted of Halal ingredients. To realize their support, on December 17 2014 for the first time a Halal Food Buffet Party was held in the school cafeteria – an event too worth to be missed.
This event was held not only to introduce the Halal menu recommendation for the Moslems, but to also introduce the Halal mind itself to the visiting people including the Japanese and other International students. To the Moslems, Halal means ‘permissible’ as in any action or object which is permissible to use or engage in according to the Islamic law. In Islam, the word Halal used mainly in food reference to designate foods that is permissible to eat or drink under Islamic Shari’ah. It specified both what foods are allowed and how the food must be prepared and it mostly deals with the types of meat and animal tissues. As it was known that the preparation of the meat consisting of praying before cutting the animal, in Japanese, a pleasant term such as “お祈りした肉” is sometimes used to explain the word ‘Halal’ simply.
In this event, the foods recommended were Japanese home-cooking style including Kara-age Chicken (fried chicken), Gyuu-niku Jyaga (Potato and Beef Stew), Chicken Tomato Sauce, Grilled Chicken and also Gyuu-don (Beef Rice Bowl) and all of these foods will be in the daily menu of Chiba-U cafeteria starting next year and also The Halal Food Supporting Board members collaborating with the cafeteria chef said that they will change the menu some time in every year so that the Halal food that could be eaten would vary. I am sure that the Moslems would be happier to know this, since from now on we know that we would not need to be worry about the foods that we can find near us since the Halal foods are provided by the campus thanks to the Halal Food Supporting Board and Chiba Univeristy.
