UK: Review of HFA’s Community Seminar Birmingham

Following our community seminar and Q&A session at Imrans’ Function Room in Birmingham – we have written a short review.

HFA logoOur second community event took place Saturday 31st January 2015 – in Birmingham. With the agenda including HFA’s Mufti Barakatullah delivering information on the HFA’s Ulama Board (its opinions and findings), presentations on food safety and doubtful ingredients as well as speeches by Birmingham Trading Standards, Councillor Mohammed Arif of Walsall – as well as the Lord Mayor of Birmingham himself – the event was a success and ended with a wonderful three-course meal for all attendees.

Talks on food safety and doubtful ingredients were delivered by HFA staff and talks outlining the background of our certification body were delivered by HFA chairman Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui; these community seminars are set up to create awareness in the Muslim community from food safety and food technology perspective and also to discourse misconceptions about the HFA and give the public more knowledge into our practices and expertise.

Representatives of Association of Non Stun Abattoirs (ANSA) also attended and HFA courteously greeted them and answered the questions posed by them during our Q&A session. Unfortunately, our Q&A session was geared towards a stun / non-stun debate (this was never in the agenda for the day) but HFA’s panel answered all questions thrown at them by the audience that were relevant to the agenda and theme of the event, with decorum and poise. For a debate on an issue as multifaceted as stun / non-stun, a prolonged period of time was needed and we did not have the correct time constraints to host something like this – we would have liked to have been able to answer all audience questions and queries but unfortunately were unable to do so due to, what seemed to be, an agenda of ANSAs. HFA Management concluded the event with a prayer lead by one of the many Imams present at the event and a meal for all.

The audience commended the HFA for their efforts to bring awareness into the community, and we very much look forward to holding events like this in the future.