Find your own halal food with an iPhone

A great example of how technology could empower religion: Ask dietary-cautious Muslims in the west what their major challenge is when it comes to eating religiously-permitted foods and they’ll say finding a halal place on-the-go. But with Halalpal, an iPhone application that locates halal restaurants and eateries throughout the United States, sticking to a halal ...

A great example of how technology could empower religion:

A great example of how technology could empower religion:

Ask dietary-cautious Muslims in the west what their major challenge is when it comes to eating religiously-permitted foods and they’ll say finding a halal place on-the-go. But with Halalpal, an iPhone application that locates halal restaurants and eateries throughout the United States, sticking to a halal diet has become much easier.

The search engine application designed for Apple’s iPhone gives users a list of nearby restaurants with maps, contact information, price categories and recommendations.

The application scans the internet — mainly Google, Yahoo, Yelp and the online guide to halal restaurants and products known as Zabihah.com — to produce a list of halal eateries sorted by distance.

…Halalpal is just the latest application hoping to capture the Muslim demographic. Sun Dial, another mobile phone application being tested in Atlanta, tells users prayer times using Islamic friendly images of the sun and mosque to alert Muslims to prayer.

Evgeny Morozov is a fellow at the Open Society Institute and sits on the board of OSI's Information Program. He writes the Net Effect blog on ForeignPolicy.com

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