- HALAL FOODS : in the crossfire of Halal certifier wars - from Abdalhamid Evans - founder , HalalFocus.com

Malaysia /Malaisie :

Lancashire County Council caught in the crossfire of Halal certifier wars

 Unregulated Halal Food sector

This drama graphically illustrates the inherent problems that occur when
the Halal sector is left as an unregulated sub-sector of the UK food industry.

Among the 1.7 billion Muslims around the world there are many interpretations
of what is considered to be Halal. Different Halal certification agencies
have a tendency to claim that their interpretation is correct, and others
are not. It is often used a a ‘USP’ or unique selling point when promoting
their own certification services.

As we have noted over the past decade in many parts of the world,
if this process is not regulated by any higher authority, the resulting
‘certifier wars’ lead to an unending string of problems, such as those
now encountered now by Lancashire County Council.

Not a Shariah Issue

These issues are not, properly speaking, matters of the correct or incorrect
application of Islamic Shariah law. The religious scholars and authorities
throughout the Muslim world have, for the past 1,400 years, allowed
and accepted differences of opinion as long as they can broadly demonstrate
that they follow the normative guidelin
es of legal interpretation.

The respected scholars of Islam shy away from declaring that they are right
and everyone else is wrong. To do so is generally regarded, among scholars,
as an indication of ignorance, lack of education or at the very least
a lack of courtesy.

It is worth noting that in this case, the insistence on HMC approval
probably boils down to a position that regards unstunned slaughter
as the only correct method of Halal slaughter. While it is evident
that stunning was not used in animal slaughter at the time
of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, there is a broad
consensus among the leading Muslim scholars around the world that
while stunning is disapproved of, if the animal is alive at the time
of slaughter and was hand slaughtered by a sane Muslim adult,
then the meat is acceptable for Muslims to consume.

Halal Standards

It is also worth noting that in countries where there are officially
legislated Halal Standards for commercial animal slaughter, NONE
of them state that meat from stunned slaughter is forbidden.
This includes the Standards of Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand,
Singapore, Indonesia and the countries in the GCC region, as well
as major meat exporting countries such as Australia and New Zealand.
It also applies to Standards drawn up and used by other groups
such as the Halal Advocates or IFANCA in the USA and the certifying
collective known as the World Halal Council with around 50 member organisations.

This acceptance (with disapproval) also applies to the Halal Standards
that have been developed under the supervision of the Organisation
of Islamic Conference (OIC) representing 57 member states of the Muslim
world, such as the comprehensive Halal Slaughter Standard developed
by the International Halal Integrity Alliance (IHI), as well as the
Halal Standard developed by ICRIC/COMSEC, similarly in collaboration
with the ICCI and OIC bodies. ....

Read more  Lancashire Halal school dinners row

Abdalhamid Evans
Founder, HalalFocus.com
HalalFocus is owned and run by Imarat Consultants (since 2003) ,a specialist
business consultancy  has a dedicated field of focus on the Global Halal market