COATESVILLE — Masjid Ar Rahman is bringing the Halal Food Festival to Coatesville for the first time. It will be held Saturday, June 22 from noon to 7 p.m.
at Gateway Park. Masjid Ar Rahman, the sponsor, is the only mosque in Coatesville, a town with more than 70 churches. The mosque is at 723 Merchant St.
Masjid Ar Rahman was established in 2004 and has a vibrant, growing community. Members come from Coatesville, Thorndale, Downingtown, West Chester, Exton and as far as Parkesburg and its neighborhoods. The mosque says it has a mixed population: local African Americans, Hispanics, Indians, Pakistani, Sri Lankans, Egyptians, Moroccans, Syrians, Yemeni, Jordanians, and more.
So, that makes for a lot of different kinds of food every time there is a gathering in the mosque but those events are limited to members. “This time we want to open it out to the entire City of Coatesville and beyond and let everyone experience the diversity and the vibrancy of our culture,” reads a press release. The word “Halal” in Arabic means “permissible” — that is, permissible according to the religious scripture of the Quran, the Holy Book of Muslims.
It is similar to the Jewish rules for kosher food in many ways, only some of the rules are different in terms of what animal meat can be eaten and how the animal must be slaughtered. There will be a booth at the festival to explain the concept of halal vs kosher in more detail. There will be halal food vendors participating from Coates.
