For the first time ever, the list included halal BBQ joints: Yearby’s Barbecue & Waterice from CJ and Sabrina Henley, and SabarBBQ from Zain Shafi. Over in the Halal BBQ Pitmasters WhatsApp chat, a celebration erupted with unbridled smoky-eyed joy. Yet most Muslim Americans’ first taste of any halal barbecue was probably like mine—at a local mosque cookout in their youth. American halal barbecue has grown across generations of community cookouts, as Black Muslims taught this craft to waves of Muslim immigrants that arrived after 1965. The market for American halal meat is estimated at approximately $380 billion and is projected to double over the next seven years.