Now I'm confused again.
Read this.
http://islamqa.com/en/ref/6509/halal meat
wouldn't United Stated considered "where People of the Book live"?
Also here:
http://islamqa.com/en/ref/103/halal meat
No they wouldn't be
They claim to be people of the book, yet they care little about how their animals are slaughtered. Anyways, fatwas are not really open to discussion among us the non-knowledgable people. If you accept the fatwa and adhere to it Alhamdulilaah. If you cannot, "fatwa shopping" won't help you enter Jannaah
To me the matter is clear. To others, they want to justify it. Let me remind you that if you were to find a fatwa that states it is permissible, do you understand the concept of cross-contamination?
For example, you will rarely find a place that doesn't use the same oil to fry chicken strips, chicken nuggets, bacon, french fries, fish burgers, and others.
Place like subway wear gloves when making sandwiches. This is all fine and dandy, but he picks up the lettuce with his gloves, and then the pork/ham/bacon, and then the tomatoes. What happens to the tomatoes? Traces of pork. You can see that by the end of the day when you come to order your sandwich, the chances are greater than 99.9% that what he is going to put in your sandwich has come into contact with pig byproducts.
Same thing with spatulas, knives, table tops, and every other thing they use for preparing your food. Do you think they are going to wash carefully every thing they use for your lonely sandwich?
Anything you pick up from a place like that is pretty much a guarantee that it carries traces of pig byproducts. This is a reality.
Truth hurts as they say, and sometimes difficult to accept. This is what you have to put up with if you choose to live in a non-Islamic society. If there are Halal food shops, then they are most deserving of your money. If there are none around, then patience is your weapon. Those who endure patiently have the greatest rewards with Allaah 'Azza Wa-Jal.
Say, "O My servants who have believed, fear your Lord. For those who do good in this world is good, and the earth of Allah is spacious. Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without account." {25:75}
Those will be awarded the Chamber for what they patiently endured, and they will be received therein with greetings and [words of] peace. {25:75}
Indeed, there was a party of My servants who said, ‘Our Lord, we have believed, so forgive us and have mercy upon us, and You are the best of the merciful.’
But you took them in mockery to the point that they made you forget My remembrance, and you used to laugh at them.
Indeed, I have rewarded them this Day for their patient endurance - that they are the attainers [of success]."
{23:109-111}
