What is Halal?
In plain words, halal is anything that is created under the Islamic law called sharia. There are 5 types of ahkam (which means activity) that confined the action of Moslems, halal literally means it is in the “allowed” category, whereas terms like haram means it is forbidden under Islam. Regarding to food, halal is a specific way of preparing food by declaring “In the name of Allah” before the consumption of animals, thus it is possible to create non-food halal items. It is also interesting to note non-Moslems can create halal too in Book 27, Hadith 3744 “…and it was made lawful to eat the flesh of an animal slaughtered by the people of the Book,” and certain groups of people can never create halal even if they are Moslems as described in Book 15, Hadith 2814 “The Apostle of Allah forbade to eat slaughtered by the Bedouins for vainglory and pride.”
Why is it a problem?
The food itself is not a problem because most food is permissible under sharia, as long as a verbal cleansing action is performed. But for animal rights activists, food containing blood is haram therefore in most slaughter houses the animals had their throats slit and hung upside down to remove blood, which some may find barbaric. What is really concerning is the amount of fees some companies pay to Islamic organisations when no such requirement is mentioned anywhere in Quran, a few problems derived from this certification are the extra cost of product for consumers, deception and the worst of them all, funding of terrorism. Let’s take a look at each one of the problems closely.
Dhimmitude
Dhimmitude is a soft jihad on the non-Moslem population, dhimmi means non-Moslems in Islamic countries, they are treated as second class citizens and are forced to pay a jizya thus forcing them to convert to become Moslems. When companies pay for halal certification, they are effectively submitting to dhimmitude and thus paying a jizya. This is a lucrative business for those trying to imposing halal because every aspect of the production for the manufactures will be strictly controlled to ensure compliance to sharia. Not only that but the profit (if any) made from the companies are not allowed to support production of pork, alcohol or military because those activities are haram.
Taqiyya
Taqiyya means winning through deception under Islam, therefore Moslems are given incentives to lie to advance the cause of Islam. Again, this is another soft jihad employed by the halal authorities to create an extortion racket. Many natural products are halal without a certificate but halal authorities may threaten companies to obtain a certification or face accusation of non-compliance. The threat of losing business is a taqiyya when products marketed not to Moslems are now halal compliant such as hot cross buns, cosmetics and bacon.
Jihad
Part of the money that goes to halal authority is given as zakat, which is the charity aim for Moslems to promote Islam, for instance halal funds have been exposed to be paying for the proliferation of mosques in Indonesia, in another instance Halal authority Holy Land Foundation was found to be supplying to Hamas. There so many halal authorities out there now that it is really hard to keep track of just how many terrorist activities these organisations are funding.
Halal in New Zealand
Halal is everywhere, New Zealand is not an exception. It is important to know which companies are paying for halal certification and boycott them to secure the things we value like freedom of choice, equality and free speech. The following is a few of the halal certified brands to avoid: