France is home to the largest Muslim community in the Western world. For several years now, France’s national standardisation body AFNOR has been working with other standardisation bodies in Europe to develop a European halal standard.
Some French politicians have seized on the spread of halal food to win votes. Producers selling their wares at Paris’s annual Paris Halal Expo are much more convinced it will bring something else: profit.
Like many French Muslims, Kamil Saidi, who owns the restaurant, says he was disgusted by the recent political kerfuffle over halal, triggered by far right candidate Marine Le Pen’s charge that non-Muslims in Paris were unwittingly eating animals slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law.
Pakistan’s private sector and commerce ministry have miserably failed to capture even a small share of the global halal market because of indifference, lethargy, poor business vision and short-sightedness.
British ministers are seeking to change a law to ensure that meat slaughtered using Islamic, or halal, methods cannot be sold without proper labeling.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has lamented the decline of the traditional French butcher and now wants all meat clearly marked—halal, kosher or French—while Prime Minister Francois Fillon has suggested the ritual slaughter of animals by Muslims and Jews is out of sync with modern times.
Sarkozy met the mosque’s Imam and the French Muslim Council leader and said he told them “he did not want, in this electoral period, some of our compatriots to feel hurt by controversies that have no place here”.
The confrontation between traditional Muslim ways and Europe’s Christian heritage has erupted in several European countries as the number of Muslims increases across the continent because of continuing immigration and the customary large families of Muslim immigrants. But it is particularly raw in France. This is true in part because it has emerged as an issue in the election campaign.
For many, France’s prime minister Francois Fillon’s comments went too far. He hosted Jewish leaders Wednesday and was expected to meet with Muslim leaders Thursday in what appeared to be an attempt to ease concerns about his comments on French radio this week.
In an effort to woo the far-right, French politicians continue to oppose traditional Abrahamic religions by suggesting that Muslims and Jews put an end to Halal and Kosher food laws.
Front National presidential candidate Marine Le Pen made the statement in a speech in Lille, saying that “all the meat distributed in the Ile-de-France is halal”. She said that this was being done unknown by the consumer, adding that “all the abattoirs in Ile-de-France sell halal”. However professionals in the sector said Ms Le Pen had mixed up “distribution” and “slaughtering”.
The Port of Marseille, with the strong support of the Malaysian government, is actively developing the Halal logistics sector. Intense lobbying is in place in order to convince logistic companies to move into this developing sector.
The 10 per cent growth rate in the overall Halal market is clearly driven by the frozen products category. Savoury products alone total approx. €31 million (up 12 per cent). Frozen meats are one of the biggest contributors in terms of sales.
Demand for Islamic funds has risen in the past three to six months as the global economic slowdown prompted investors to seek alternative investments to help manage risk, according to Germain Birgen, Luxembourg-based global head of HSBC Amanah Securities. The unit will help set up more than 30 Sharia-compliant funds globally.
Local communities in France’s immigrant suburbs increasingly organise themselves on Islamic lines rather than following the values of the secular republic, according to a major new sociological study.
Since 1 August, halal branches of Quick restaurants, France’s leading fastfood chain, have extended their business hours from 10 PM until midnight to accommodate their Muslim customers who have to wait until after sunset to eat. This is a first for Quick, which had not adjusted its business hours in previous years.
An overview on Halal in France, Russia, USA, UK and Europe. As numbers grow, Muslims continue to maintain purchasing habits that align with their Islamic faith. Muslims want to be able to look at a product and see a recognizable Halal logo. There is an increasing demand for products that are inclusive.
Islamic Finance news – IFN Today, Thursday, 24th May 2012
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