What a pleasure to read a story about Islam that has nothing to do with “the war on terror.” Andrea Elliott offers up the story of a New Jersey halal slaughterhouse that is modest, evocative, and very fine to read: “…the call to prayer… slips out through a vent, blending with the drone of the New Jersey Turnpike. Inside, the voice moves from room to room, where chickens, bulls and goats arrive daily to meet their death. Blasted from loudspeakers, the sound hovers over the head butcher, Jaci DaSilva, a Brazilian immigrant who converted to Islam a decade ago.”