Generation M.(Muslims asserting themselves in European countries)(Column)

The debate about where or whether Islam belongs in Europe has become a conversational genre. To ban or not to ban headscarves in schools? Terrorism versus civil liberties? Whither multiculturalism? All worthy questions, you may say, but what do they have to do with charcuterie?

The French simply love it--pork sausages, pigs' feet and ham. But when Mouhad Bourouis, 33, worked at a summer day camp for underprivileged children in the south of France a few years ago, charcuterie posed a problem. Out of 80 kids, 28 were Muslim and the halal restrictions on their diet, like kosher ones for Jewish children, meant they could eat no pork at all. "The first week I planned ...