Food is the single great unifier across cultures. It sheds light on the people’s way of life, their cultural values and their perspectives on life.
In line with this, Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) will hold its annual “Halal Restaurant Week Korea 2021” to cater to the needs of Muslim tourists and promote Korea as Muslim-friendly destination, Yahoo Finance reported.
Halal Restaurant Week is an annual event that has been hosted by KTO since 2015. The event is meant to promote halal and Muslim-friendly restaurants in Korea to Muslim tourists.
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But due to pandemic, this year’s event will be live-streamed globally via YouTube and TikTok channels and runs for two months from September 1 to October 31.
KTO plans to host the event via a set of videos, called Halal TV, exploring halal food in Korea.
According to the Korea Muslim Federation (KMF), there are about 120,000 to 130,000 Muslims living in South Korea.
The majority of South Korea’s population is made up of migrant workers from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The number of native Korean Muslims is estimated at some 45,000.
Halal is an Arabic word that means “permissible.” The term is commonly used for meat, but it’s also applied to other food products, cosmetics, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals which mustn’t be derived from non-halal sources like pork.
Halal also applies to any other consumed and edible materials which mustn’t be harmful to human health. For example, Islam considers wines, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, E-cigs, hookah and other unhealthy things to be non-halal.