MEAT INDUSTRY FIGHTS HALAL BOYCOTT
Canberra, 11 Safar 1436/4 December 2014 (MINA) – Meat and livestock industry representative bodies are developing a plan to help butchers and wholesalers under siege from an anti-halal social media campaign.
The Boycott Halal facebook group urges its tens of thousands of followers to bombard specific businesses with complaints in the hope they will ditch their halal certification.
As businesses are targeted one at a time, the flood of negative messages has proved overwhelming for small companies to cope with, particularly when posted on facebook business pages that can be seen by the general public, stockjournal quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting on Thursday.
Boycott campaigners such as Halal Choices’ Kirralie Smith say certification fees, which can range from between several hundred to tens of thousands of dollars a year, are at worst funding terrorist activities, and at best serve as an unfair tax on non-Muslim consumers.
Islamic Council of Qld president Mohammed Yusuf says the boycott movement is misinformed. The council is one of the groups that conducts halal certification inspections.
“We charge an average of $250 to certify a restaurant or takeaway, which doesn’t even cover the cost of doing the initial inspections or the random follow-up checks,” he said.
Australian Meat Industry Council executive director Paul Sandercock described the links to terrorism as “tenuous”, and dismissed the idea that there was some kind of coordinated movement to force Australian businesses to pay for halal certification.
“It’s been left to individual businesses to make their own decision about what they want to do,” he said.
“It is no different to any other requirement that customers might have – if people like a particular value-added product or special order, businesses will react to that.”
Halal foods are products that do not contravene Islamic law, through avoiding ingredients such as pork or alcohol.
In regards to meat, certified halal producers must comply with the Australian Government Muslim Slaughter program.
Under this, a number of halal certification organisations are given responsibility to ensure halal slaughter is carried out according to the stipulations of Islamic law.
These organisations make regular inspections to confirm that abattoirs are employing registered Muslims to conduct halal slaughter using a sharp knife in accordance with Shariah law.
Additionally, they make sure only halal additives and ingredients are added to the meat product.(T/P009/R03)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
