The AMYP Series is a periodic posting by its Social Committee to give muslims in Atlanta real and personal outlooks on the Atlanta Muslim Community. Different topics of ethnic shopping centers, arts/entertainment, hot spots, restaurants, sight seeing, and more.

The authors' views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of AtlantaMuslim.com. Also, the comments posted on this Website are solely the opinions of the posters.

Much like many of you, the first thing I look for when moving to a new city are the local hangouts. Where do other Muslims go to eat, pray, shop? If you're lucky you may know someone to take you around and introduce you to the best spots, but we're not always so lucky. So what's a new Atlantan to do in that case? These days there are a number of resources for people can check out, including atlantamuslim.com and Atlanta Muslim Young Professionals. When I moved to Atlanta back in 2006 however, there was one place that had all the information I was looking for, and that site was Zabihah.com.

Zabihah was started in 1998 as a regional guide to halal food in Silicon Valley and since then has grown into "the world's largest guide to halal restaurants and products." Navigating to the Metro Atlanta region on the site, you can see Zabihah has 130+ restaurants, 180+ markets and 60+ mosques listed, more than enough to help anyone get familiarized with local halal business! Clicking on one of the tabs displays business locations on the map. Each business listing is similar to a Yelp review, with business type, open hours, contact information, reviews, and more.

All this sounds great, and it is, but there are certain caveats to using the site as well. The listings are updated infrequently, so you may find businesses in your neighborhood which haven't been added to the site despite being around for months, or even listings for a restaurant that is no longer open. For the businesses that are listed, reviews tend to be scarce, if there are any at all. Take these reviews with a grain of salt, since most people who have been spurred into submitted a review tend to either love or hate their personal experience!

At the end of the day, Zabihah.com is still a readily available, easy to use resource I always recommend to friends moving to a new city and looking for halal businesses. Despite the oftentimes lackluster business reviews available, the site is the best one-stop-shop for Muslims looking for places to eat, shop or worship in a new city.

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