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Most recent
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 Shahed Amanullah, founder of zabihah.com - the world's largest guide to halal restaurants and markets - used the International Halal Market Conference in Brunei Darussalam to announce the launch of zabihah.com's Halal Products Guide, which allows global halal consumers to search, rate and review halal products from around the world.
(More here...)
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 Today at the 2008 World Halal Forum in Kuala Lumpur, zabihah.com was proud to receive the Halal Journal's "Travel and Hospitality" award, which was personally presented to us by Malaysian Prime Minister YAB Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. zabihah.com is quickly growing into a comprehensive hub for halal resources, and this award is recognition of the global impact we are making on the halal marketplace. (More here...)
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 Since July 2007, a revolution has been underway among Subway restaurants around the UK. The American submarine sandwich chain has allowed its franchisees to operate halal stores and dozens of them have done just that. Up to 200 restaurants are expected to go halal in 2008. The restaurants are fully halal - meaning all "ham" sandwiches are made of turkey. (More here...)
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 It's been under wraps for a while, but we can talk about it now - we've partnered with Apple to promote the zabihah iPhone/iPod Touch application on Apple's website. Apple approached us and let us know that our iPhone app is a great example of the kind of functionality they intended for the iPhone to have, and wanted to include it as one of 200 featured apps in their new web apps directory. Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible - especially you, the zabihah.com user! (More here...)
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 If you're one of the lucky few who have managed to get an iPhone, you can now point your Safari browser to i.zabihah.com and look up zabihah.com listings on your new iPhone!
Each listing includes a button to automatically call the restaurant, plus a link to the internal Google Maps client and driving directions! You can save phone numbers and locations in your personal bookmarks as well. Works in the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
This is a beta release (ver 0.75) - it will be updated soon to allow you to leave reviews, as well as link to salatomatic.com mosque listings in the same area.
Update: Nearly 100 people a day are using the iPhone zabihah app - thanks!
Update 2: Now over 300 people a day are using the iPhone/iPod Touch to access zabihah.com!
Update 3: Amazing - nearly 1,000 people a day are using this app! (More here...)
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Thank you for taking zabihah.com past the 20,000 review milestone. That's 20,000 reasons why the halal marketplace is growing in quality as well as quantity. 20,000 ways in which we are encouraging businesses that cater to the Muslim palate to provide the best possible food and service. And 20,000 testaments to the fact that halal eating is easier and more satisfying than it once was, nearly ten years ago when we started this site.
In the coming year, we have big plans for zabihah.com, all geared toward making it easier and more convenient for you to eat halal, and toward helping Muslim businesses reach the ever-growing base of halal foodies around the world.
So for the 10,000 people that use zabihah.com every day: thanks for making zabihah.com the most trusted and widely-used source for finding halal in your neighborhood! (More here...)
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We're in the process of organizing our Singapore listings into districts, as well as geocoding the entries so that they will show up on Google Maps. If there are readers familiar with Singapore who can let us know which restaurants are in the wrong subregion, please feel free to tell us about them.
Update: Thanks to a few readers, Singapore is much more accurate now! (More here...)
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During Ramadan and Eid, we tend to get a lot of media attention, especially as the halal/zabihah market in the West is growing so rapidly. Here is a sampling of zabihah.com in the press in the past few months:
- Fast-food giants cater to Muslims (Chicago Tribune, January 4, 2007)
- In US, Ramadan gets an American twist (Christian Science Monitor, October 6, 2006)
- zabihah.com featured on KCRW's 'Good Food' show ("Good Food", KCRW Los Angeles, September 16, 2006) (More here...)
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Until now, I've focused zabihah.com on establishments where Muslims are a minority, with the logic being that in predominantly Muslim countries, Halal meat is so ubiquitous that a site like this is unnecessary. However, I've received requests from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other countries to expand our presence there. This wouldn't be very hard to implement, but before I do, I wanted to get user opinions on this. Would such a feature really be used by people in Muslim countries?
Update I've added India to the "Asia" section. (More here...)
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We've just launched our new ad purchasing engine, which allows you to price & purchase custom ad campaigns on zabihah.com. It's a step-by-step process that is easy to use:
Target our entire readership, or just your neighborhood, with text or HTML ads. Discounts are available for long-term contracts. Reach the 175,000 people per month (and growing!) that visit this site! And thanks for your patience while I got it up and running! Click here to get started... (More here...)
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Sorry it took so long, but it's finally here! Scan your favorite restaurants using an embedded Google map on zabihah.com! (US, Canada, and UK only for now; other countries coming soon.)
Please report any errors (browser crashes, etc.) to us here so we can improve the site performance. Enjoy! (More here...)
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Thanks to the hard work of some intrepid readers, we can confirm that all Outback steakhouses in the US serve halal lamb (but only the lamb). The lamb is from New Zealand and the zabihah process is supervised by the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, and we have confirmation through emails exchanges with Muslim students in New Zealand and directly from Michelle Robinson at Outback's headquarters. Michelle provides us with additional information:
"Customers who desire Halal preparation should ask that the lamb be prepared in separate sautÈ pan instead of on the grill in order to make sure there is no cross contamination from other products. Please understand that the preparation time for the lamb in the sautÈ pan will be longer than if it were prepared on the grill. Also, please ask that the steamed vegetables be prepared without the "seasoned butter", which contains a bit of bacon in the seasoning. Please remember to order your lamb without the cabernet sauce."
(Hat tips to Hassan Mirza and Irfan Rydhan) (More here...)
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We've now activated several new features, including photos for zabihah.com restaurants (send us your photos by clicking on the photo box on the detail pages, additional information about restaurants (hours, forms of payment accepted, etc.). (More here...)
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If there's anyone out there with experience in writing widgets for the Dashboard feature in Mac OSX Tiger, I'd appreciate your help. I'm writing a zabihah.com/salatomatic.com widget that would allow quick searches of restaurants, markets, mosques, & schools from your desktop. Please feel free to contact me directly. Thanks in advance! (More here...)
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You'll notice links on the top of every page for login and registration. While our service will remain 100% available for unregistered users to read, we now require registration in order to leave reviews. Unfortunately, we've had to do this due to isolated cases of abuse of the ratings system. Register now, and you'll get a sneak preview of our new customized my zabihah page, where you can manage a list of your favorite restaurants and be notified of new restaurants in your area. More personalized features are coming soon, so register now! (More here...)
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I need your help in troubleshooting zabihah.com mobile (point your mobile device to www.zabihah.com/mobile) and making sure it works on a variety of mobile devices (phones, PDAs, etc.) If you can check it to see if it works on your device - and more importantly, doesn't work - please let me know so that I can fix the problem. I'm also taking suggestions for new zabihah mobile features, being careful not to make it too complex for a mobile device. (More here...)
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Even though you've found a great Halal chinese restaurant in your neighborhood, you still need to check the soy sauce. Most Muslims don't realize that naturally brewed soy sauce (such as Kikkoman brand) can have an alcohol content as high as 2%. So what's a Muslim to do? Well, because naturally brewed soy sauce takes so long (6 months) to ferment, some mass-produced soy sauces are made much quicker without fermentation (and therefore without alcohol), using sodium benzoate as a replacement (see La Choy brand). So, check to make sure your local halal Chinese restaurant uses the right kind of soy sauce, or better yet - bring your own! (More here...)
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Just because meat has been slaughtered in the zabihah fashion doesn't mean it is free of mad cow disease. (More here...)
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