Is it permissible to eat in restaurants in the lands of disbelievers and to invoke the name of Allah upon the food without asking?

Question:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner says: We are in the country of Sweden, which is a Christian country. Is it permissible for us to eat in restaurants and eat meat, invoking the name of Allah upon it without asking?

Answer:
Invoking the name of Allah upon it is not sufficient in place of the slaughter. The invocation is upon the animal at the time of slaughter. As for the invocation at the time of eating, that is an invocation upon the food, not upon the slaughter. So this is not sufficient. If you know that these animals were slaughtered according to the Shari'ah method, even if they are from the slaughter of the Christians, you may eat from them. But if it is unclear to you and you are in doubt, avoid them. That means there are three cases. The first case is if you know that it is not according to the Shari'ah method, then it is not permissible. The second case is if you know that it was slaughtered according to the Shari'ah method, then eat from it. The third case is if you do not know this or that; this is doubtful, so avoid it. Yes.