A veritable United Nations exists in a sleepy shopping center in North Arlington.
Stores selling goods from no less than four nations on three continents all coexist side by side demonstrating the diversity that has become the norm for the Washington area.
One of those stores is the aptly-named International Market. Opened two years ago by Bengali immigrant Mohammad Adil, the International Market has carved out a niche for itself by catering to the growing Muslim population in Arlington.
The market sells imported dry goods and spices along with meats prepared according to Islamic dietary laws, known as halal.
Adil said that, while his store offers beef, chicken and goat for observant Muslims, the International Market’s true specialties are their dried and frozen freshwater fishes that they import from Bangladesh.
"Our main thing is our fish," said Al Bhasana, a clerk in the store, as he stood by one of the International Market’s large freezers full of whole fishes.
Adil opened the International Market in 2005 after moving to the area from New York City. He said he moved to Arlington because "New York has pretty high rent and much more competition."
Growing up in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, Adil said he intuitively knew how to operate a grocery store because he comes from a long line of grocery store owners.
"From my childhood I know [about] businesses like this," he said.
As the Muslim community in Arlington continues to expand, catering to Islamic customers becomes more lucrative for local businesses.
According to Zabihah.com, a Web site that tracks Islamic eateries nationwide, there are now at least 12 restaurants and four markets in Arlington County that serve halal foods with many more in other Northern Virginia jurisdictions.
MUCH LIKE THE JEWISH dietary custom of eating only kosher foods, strict Muslims can only eat food that has been certified to be halal.
"Halal is a religious way to kill the animal," Adil said. "The chicken in the farm, they just separate the neck from the body and then they sell it. Our chicken, they take off the head but they do it in the religious way."
Also, certain foods, such as pork or alcohol, can never be halal and are explicitly proscribed for Muslims.
Yusuf Saleem, an Imam at the Masjid Muhammad Mosque in Washington, said that, literally translated, halal means lawful.
"When they say halal," he said, "It means that the food has to be grown a certain way and slaughtered a certain way and prayed for."
Saleem also added that anyone can prepare halal meats as long as they have a Muslim religious figure pray over the food.
ADIL COULDN’T HAVE chosen a better place to open up his grocery store. He said that the shopping center at George Mason Drive and Lee Highway is "famous" among the local foreign-born community for its variety of ethnic options.
"We know each other," said Bhasana of the other store owners in the center. "Sometimes if they need something to buy they come in here. We have a good relationship with them."
Adil acknowledges that running a grocery store is difficult because of the pressure to maintain a high sales volume. But he said that business at the International Market is good enough that he could expand his operation.
However, don’t look for an International Market II any time soon. Adil said that he has no interest in opening up a second store in another part of town and expanding his current store is all but out of the question.
"I try to expand but I don’t have the space to expand," he said. "I need like double of this place. But next door, they never leave. If they leave I will take them."