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European Parliament vote to label meat slaughtered without pre-stunning

salama — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:47:51 +0000

By Sara Asaria

www.muslimnews.co.uk

New regulations voted by the European Parliament could mean that animal slaughtered in compliance with either Islamic or Jewish regulations would receive distinct labelling from animals not killed through religious slaughter.

The amendment, proposed by German Christian Democratic Union MEP, Romnate Sommer, passed 326-270 with 68 abstentions. Whilst Shechitah – animal killed according to Jewish law – is not pre-stunned, there is variation within the Islamic community, with several abattoirs pre-stunning animals, albeit using a significantly lower voltage to that of non religious slaughter.

Both the Muslim MEPs voted against the amendment. “I feel the proposal calling for the specific labelling of meat killed by religious methods has the potential to be extremely damaging to European Muslim communities and could result in the stigmatisation of Halal meat by the wider market. This would have negative affects on the demand for the meat and put many slaughterhouses out of business, which in-turn would affect the overall availability of Halal meat products,” Sajjad Karim, MEP, told The Muslim News.

“I will always defend the right to the religious slaughter of animals in the European Union and will resist any attempts to stigmatise Halal meat or curb its supply in the future,” he added.

Sayed Kamal, MEP, also strongly opposed the amendment. He told The Muslim News, “This new regulation appears to be discriminatory since only animals which are killed for meat using the Halal or Shechita method would require a special label when sold to consumers or sold onto the processed meat industry, while animals which are shot, gassed or stunned would not be labelled as such. I am working to try to convince my colleagues in the European Parliament that this regulation appears to single out this method of slaughter and will continue to fight against this discriminatory proposal in the European Parliament.”

The Halal Food Authority, who pre-stun animals before slaughter, supported the amendment. President of the organisation, Massod Khawaja, told The Muslim News, “The Halal Food Authority has always been a proponent of labelling meat, poultry and other food stuffs not only to verify a halal status but also for the use of human consumption: to ensure the quality of food, hygiene and origin of country.” The company would also welcome a distinction to be made when labelling halal meat which may or may not be pre-stunned.

Khawaja argues that added detail on labelling would satisfy customers as well as animal rights organisations, “everybody would be happy”.

However, when expressing their agreement with the proposed labelling change, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) referred only to meat from animals that have not been stunned. President of the BVA, Professor Bill Reilly, released the following statement, “We have argued for some time for meat from animals slaughtered without the more humane method of stunning to be labelled as such.”

Their support for the measure counters criticism from the Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC), condemning the labelling of non-stunned slaughtered foods as “discriminatory”.

The HMC argues that the public should be informed of the dangers of mis-stunning animals and of other methods used to kill animals, including electrocution, shooting or gassing.

Therefore, the HMC believes that proposed labels, which would read, “meat from slaughter without stunning”, would help perpetrate incorrect notions about non-stunned meat. Chairman of the company, Mawlana Hanif Dudhwala, argues, “Non-stunned slaughter of animals is not cruel when done properly and we believe this method produces the safest halal option and a better quality of meat.”

Mawlana Dudhwala further criticises the EU Parliament for having “wilted under the pressure and the funding power of animal welfare groups.” He expresses fear for religious businesses selling non-stunned meat, claiming they have been “deliberately targeted” by animal rights groups and believes that customers who seek non-stunned meat for health reasons would also suffer.

The proposed measures can only be implemented if supported by all 27 EU Agricultural Ministers, later this year.

If adopted, food businesses will be given a three year transition period and smaller operations – with an annual turnover of less than €5m and under 100 employers – will be given up to five years to comply to the new legislation.

All forms of religious slaughter are banned in Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.

Malaysia: Melaka Halal Hub Investment

salama — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:44:03 +0000

JASIN, July 29 (Bernama) — The Melaka Halal Hub in Serkam here aims to woo RM155 million investment by year-end, says Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam.

Currently, the 53.6ha hub has received RM125 million investments, he said.

“We hope to receive more investments from foreigners, especially from Saudi Arabia,” he told reporters after opening a factory owned by Kewpie Malaysia Sdn Bhd at the hub Thursday.

Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia Horie Masahiko was present.

Mohd Ali said 48 of the 58 factories at the hub were already owned by the investors.

He said the hub provided 732 jobs to locals who have the chance to learn the technology brought in by foreign investors.

Going forward, Mohd Ali said the state government planned to invest RM50 million to develop the second phase of the Melaka Halal Hub under the 10th Malaysia Plan.

The move will entail developing 5.6 hectares of land, building 65 factory units and providing eight empty lots for investors to set up factories, he added.

Meanwhile, Kewpie Malaysia managing director Asada Daisaburo said the company, which produces various mayonis products from Japan, has invested RM34 million to set up the factory at the hub.

The factory, operational next month, will have the capacity to produce 200 tonnes of mayonis in a month.

Kewpie Malaysia aims to achieve RM66.7 million sales by the financial year ending 2015 and will move actively to sell its products in the market, said Daisaburo who spoke through an interpreter.

He said the mayonis products from Japan were first imported to Malaysia 20 years ago due to overwhelming demand.

The company started planning in August 2007 to produce the mayonis in Malaysia after receiving positive feedback at a food exhibition at the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, he added.

– BERNAMA

French Halal Market Grows By Leaps And Bounds

salama — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:35:04 +0000

PARIS, July 27, 2010 (News Agencies) . France has recently gained a negative reputation in the Muslim world because of its banning of burqas and scuttling personal freedoms. Irrespective of this developments the halal market continues to grow in the country.

According to Abbas Bendali, president of the market research firm Solis, the country’s halal market has ‘exploded’ in the last three years. In an interview to the Globe and Mail he said that it is increasing by 20 per cent a year and will be worth an estimated €5.5-billion ($7.5 billion) this year.

Visible evidence of this trend is seen in the sprouting of dozens of halal restaurants. According to a restaurant website there are more than 250 restaurants serving only halal and no alcohol. More and more of these restaurants are serving the regular French fare while adhering to halal principles.

“You could see this as a sign that French Muslims are segregating themselves, but it actually shows that they are becoming more integrated,” he says. “Their country is France, they want to eat like the rest of France. But at the same time they want to hold on to part of their heritage.”

In this sense halal is serving as an integrating factor.

Sri Lanka: Halal needs regulatory framework

salama — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:22:17 +0000

The local Halal industry needs a strong regulatory framework with the increase in demand for Halal products in the count

Addressing the second Sri Lanka Islamic Banking and Finance Conference, Thomson Reuters (USA) Global Head of Islamic Finance Rushdi Siddiqui said “it is essential to have more Government regulations for the Halal industry in Sri Lanka. Measures should be taken to set up an international body for the certification process. We are going to invite the Gulf region and Thailand to convene it here,” he said.

Some specialized knowledge and more professionals are required to understand the complexity in the Halal industry to sustain the business.

One of the Sri Lankan representatives in Halal industry said Halal is a new item for the country and more professionals and scholars should work together to expand the business. The demand for the Halal products has increased in the country and people’s awareness of Halal products has also increased.

“Most of the Sri Lankan companies are seeking the Halal licence and support of professionals and scholars in the country are essential to make the industry a profitable one,” he said.

Courtesy: DailyNews

Malaysia: Halal certification: Jakim to beef up manpower

salama — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:04:44 +0000

KUALA LUMPUR, Wednesday 28 July 2010 (Bernama) — The Islamic Development Department (Jakim) will introduce 104 new posts, including food technologists, biotechnologists, chemists and reference specialists to facilitate the issuance of halal certificate and logo.

Its director-general, Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz said this was consistence with the proposed amendment to the Trade Descriptions Act 1972 to empower Jakim and state Islamic Religious departments in the issuance of halal certificate and logo.

Welcoming the Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Ministry’s decision to restrict the issuance of halal certificate and logo, he said this would stop self-recognition where certain quarters could issue their own halal certificate and logo.

“This practice is unbecoming in a large industry. Jakim will seek the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ cooperation in studying and strengthening the laws governing halal certification by both departments,” he told a news conference here today.

On Sunday, Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the Attorney General’s Chambers was finalising the amendment bill which would be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat in October.

On halal certification for leading hotels, Wan Mohamed said there was an increase in applications for the month of Ramadan a result of a dialogue between Jakim and the Malaysian Association of Hotels.

The Growing Halal Restaurants in France

salama — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:59:31 +0000

In a restaurant in the heart of Paris, tucked between the city Bastille and Place de la Nation, Sophia Tabet was ready to eat a typical French menu, including foie gras, roast beef and roast duck. But unlike the other French restaurants, one restaurant that does not offer its menu and wine list all the food prepared in strict accordance with the principles of Islamic sharia law.

“We all eat halal food. It’s nice to have a change, with French-style Halal food, “says Tabet (29 years) who is also a customer adviser at a financial services company. Tabet is a Muslim girl who a customer of the “Les Enfants Terribles” restaurant which serves Halal food. Born and educated in France, young French Muslims have a sense of culinary and social life similar to fellow non-Muslims to them, but eating out can be a disappointing experience, because of the limited fast-food restaurants are cheap or have a vegetarian menu on the cuisine.

“Before, eating Halal food in Paris, your food is limited only to foods such as pizza or kebab shops,” said Kamel Saidi (32 years) who opened the restaurant Les Enfants Terribles two years ago with his brother.” I was born in France, I grew up in France and I am frustrated because I was not able to enjoy the traditional foods of France,” he said.

For Muslims, the rules of eating Halal foods such as do not contain pork or any food that is mixed with the alcohol becomes a problem – especially against the French traditional food. In a country that is famous for its rich cuisine, Halal food becomes a separate issue for Muslims. “What if you want your colleagues to invite a non-Muslim to eat out? Your period will invite non-Muslim fellow you are to want to eat at a restaurant that serves Kebab? “said Saidi.

France is the European country with the largest Muslim population, estimated at about 5 million people living in France is Muslim. Currently the stores that provide Halal products valued at up to 4 billion euros and growth of halal products in France is expected to reach 10 percent per year until 2012, according to a study by Xerfi consultant based in Paris. For Saidi who has opened a kosher restaurant Les Enfants Terribles, the restaurant is promising for developing and developed considering the number of Muslims in France, he himself is planning to open a second restaurant in other places in France.

“The demand for restaurants serving Halal food is very big. Halal food has grown everywhere, “he said.

Malaysia Set To Clinch 25 Per Cent Of Global Transactions In Islamic Banking

salama — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:42:52 +0000

From Mohd Iswandi Kasan Anuar

OXFORD, July 27 (Bernama) — Malaysia is set to clinch 25 per cent of global transactions in Islamic banking within the next decade from less than 10 per cent currently, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said.

He said Malaysia would be attractive because it was the only country having a complete value chain of Islamic financing with Islamic and conventional banking both operating in the mainstream financial services landscape.

“There is great potential and if we do it right, we should be able to achieve that,” he told a press conference at the Inaugural Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum here Monday.

He said Islamic finance companies in Malaysia should produce more products in view of their experience in creating truly genuine Islamic financial products.

They should create more interesting Islamic products based on the concept of mudharabah (profit sharing) or musyarakah (profit and loss sharing), he added.

On the halal industry, Nor urged the players to produce products or services that have value propositions not only for Muslim but also non-Muslim markets.

The industry has come to a level where companies should look at non-Muslim markets to create economies of scale and as a result, make the products much cheaper, he said.

“We have now come to a stage where we can create products from bottom up instead of taking conventional products and cleansing it,” he said, adding that more than 70 per cent of the world population are non-Muslims.

He said the halal brand should also mean quality, pure and clean so that the market reach would not be limited to Muslims.

“If we tell that halal is end-to-end traceability and very safe as well as follow all ethical requirements then I belief the non-Muslims will also buy,” he said.

The two-day forum that began Monday was organised by University of Oxford’s Said Business School. Tanjung Manis Halal Hub is one of the lead partners.

Tanjung Manis is a Sarawak government project and a component in the Sarawak development corridor.

– BERNAMA

Pakistan reaches out to Buddhist Tourists

salama — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:02:55 +0000

Pakistan is seeking to highlight its Buddhist heritage as part of a broader effort to attract more visitors from Thailand and the Asean countries. A key objective is to narrow the huge imbalance in visitor arrivals; in 2008, a total of 63,258 Pakistanis visited Thailand but only 2,618 Thais returned the favour. Diplomatic, economic and tourism officials on both sides say stronger bilateral efforts to fix the imbalance are long overdue.

In Bangkok, Pakistani ambassador Sohail Mahmood has organised visits by Thai Buddhist leaders to Pakistan’s Buddhist heritage sites, such as Taxila, Takht-i-Bahi and the neighbouring city remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol. Both are among the six Unesco heritage sites in Pakistan.

In Islamabad, Thai Ambassador Marut Jitpatima says he sees huge potential for developing contacts in at least three areas of commerce: gems and jewellery, construction contracts for Pakistan’s huge infrastructure needs, and imports of halal food from Thailand.

He said a Pakistani business mission would visit Bangkok from Sept 21-23 for talks with halal food producers, research and standards experts. He said there was huge potential for using Pakistan as a base for exporting Thail halal food to Middle East the Central Asian markets.

One Pakistani Buddhist playing a major role is Raja Trivdi Roy, a federal minister without portfolio in the Pakistani government. He said Buddhist religious leaders, scholars, students and pilgrims from Thailand and around the world should visit the Buddhist sites. “Not too many people know that the Lord Buddha’s personal physician studied in the university that existed in Taxila in those days,” he said. “It was one of the only universities in the world at the time.”

Mr Roy, who traces his origins back to the Chittagong hill tracts in Bangladesh, is a frequent visitor to Bangkok where his daughter works with the UN.

Pakistani tourism authorities also say they are keen to learn from the Thai experience in dealing with the red-shirt crisis. They say they can identify with Thailand’s complaints about being vilified in the international media and the misuse of the word “terrorism” – a problem Pakistan has been facing for many years. At the same time, they are awe-struck by how quickly Thailand was able to counter the negative coverage and revive visitor arrivals.

Said Pakistani Tourism Minister Secretary Hifz-ur-Rahman, “We need to rectify the negative propaganda against Pakistan. Negative travel advisories are damaging the image of the country as reported in the western media.”

Ambassador Marut said the Thai embassy in Islamabad and consulate in Karachi get a total of 400 visa applications a day, with the vast majority cleared in 24 hours. The normal visa fee is about 2,000 rupees but this has been waived until March 2011 as part of Thailand’s tourism recovery programme, leading to a natural increase in visa applications.

Thai Airways International and Pakistan International Airlines between them have 17 flights a week to Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. From Thailand to Pakistan, the traffic consists mainly of UN personnel, many travelling onward to Afghanistan, businessmen and tourists. From Pakistan to Thailand, Mr Marut said, they include both upmarket and middle-class Pakistanis seeking to enjoy a holiday in Thailand, businessmen and VFR (visiting friends and relatives) traffic.

There are several hundred Pakistani students at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, and several hundred Thai Muslim students in religious studies at Pakistani universities.

Indeed, the two countries have much in common. Both are strategically located with long and porous overland borders that are almost impossible to control. Both have political systems in which the military plays a major role.

In terms of tourism, Pakistan’s natural and cultural assets are equal to those of Thailand. The difference is that Thailand has been able to build on these with policy measures to facilitate access, enhance transport links, develop a strong brand image and ensure strong delivery of products and services.

Pakistan’s security concerns still require some visa restrictions, although Ambassador Mahmood said every effort would be made by the embassy in Bangkok to ensure speedy delivery of visas to Buddhist religious pilgrims, tour groups, trade and exhibition delegates.

Imtiaz Muqbil is executive editor of Travel Impact Newswire, an e-mailed feature and analysis service focusing on the Asia-Pacific travel industry.

Indonesia: RI becomes world’s halal standard reference

salama — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:44:43 +0000

Indonesia became a standard reference for determining the Halal world together with Malaysia and Singapore.

“The result of our agreement in this meeting, we equate Halal standards with reference to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore,” said President of the World Halal Council Lukmanul Hakim in Jakarta, Sunday.

The deal was taken in the international meeting on halal standards are followed by 31 institutions such as the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC), Halal Transsction of Omaha (U.S.) and Shandong Islamic Association (SIA), China.

During the meeting, he said, to 31 institutions agreed to equate Halal standards for various products such as cosmetics, medicines and food.

This meeting, according Lukmanul, an inter-agency meetings of certification of the entire world that talked about the halal certification standards and procedures submitted by the Research Institute for Food, Drugs and Cosmetics (LPPOM) Assembly of Ulama Indonesia (MUI) and the Halal Feed and Food Inspection Authority Netherland.

Also discusses the halal certification standards on animal slaughter and halal certification standards on processed food.

“We agreed to form a team and later will do the job ratify halal standards,” said Lukamnul who is also director of LPPOM MUI.

Efforts to establish an international halal standards had been pioneered since the World Halal Council was formed in 1999 in Jakarta.

He added that the halal standard agreement will also be submitted to the organization of Islamic countries (OIC) and also desirable ratified by the United Nations (UN).

Currently kosher certification agencies have different standards regarding both the organization and system of auditing standards, standards for animal slaughter and processed food.

Different standards are very difficult for the halal certification process involving use of materials or products interstate.

Differences that often occur in the halal certification standards, he added, rather than on the concept of halal and haram but rather on the technical standard of examination and implementation as pemingsanan techniques in the process of slaughter and others.

Sweden: Christians support abolishing halal slaughter ban

salama — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 09:52:33 +0000

Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), Sweden is the only country in Europe banning kosher and halal slaughter. The Swedish Christian community should show tolerance to Jews and Muslims and demand to abolish the ban, say four representatives of Christian Sweden.

The four – Sven-Bernard Fast, Caroline Krook, Peter Weiderud and Karin Wiborn – write in an opinion piece in Dagens Nyheter (SE), that the Swedish parliament introduced a ban of religious slaughter in 1938 to complicate life for the Jews.

The four write that the rest of Europe ended this discrimination after the war, but in Sweden the ban remains for animal welfare reasons, which complicates life for Jews and Muslims.

The writers think that parliament members know what needs to be done to combine religious slaughter with the modern requirement of animal welfare.

“We know that kosher and halal slaughter are significantly less painful than the culturally cherished Swedish slaughter of grouse, elk and crayfish.