Reading #BoycottHalal Posts? Know more about "Halal"

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you may have read about a campaign against a leading ready-to-cook brand that specializes in south Indian breakfasts. The campaign alleges that the company uses animal products to achieve the consistency and quality of their product, and that the promoters adhere to Islamic financial principles.

This has generated another campaign along a more general #boycotthalal and #SayNoToHalal theme. Anti-Halal campaigns are not new; they materialize on social media from time to time. They often target large and multinational food brands who display “halal” certifications – which they do to attract observant Muslim consumers. As in other similar campaigns, they die down when the main influencers move on to other topics, but not before doing some damage to social harmony, livelihoods… and lives.

There is substantial lack of knowledge about the concept of halal. Due to this gap, malicious lies find traction and misconceptions build up, endangering the already fragile social harmony in India. There is strong and organized propaganda against halal but one must do one's bit.

So here is a small attempt to demystify that term.

What is halal?

Halal simply means “permissible," or easier still “that which is not forbidden.”

The word for “forbidden” is “haram.” This word is commonplace and you’ll find it easily in popular culture, and if you speak Hindi or Urdu, you might be using it frequently. For example, namak haram is a term often used to describe people who betray their benefactors.

The Quran prohibits Muslims from doing certain acts. These could be financial, social and dietary. Since this note is about halal meat, I won't go into much detail about financial or social.

Financial

The Quran and jurisprudence derived from it and the Hadith (narrative records of Prophet Mohammed’s practices and instructions) bar Muslims from riba’a, whose closest English equivalent is “usury”. The base principle is that one should not profit from another’s misery. Therefore, moneylending and other exploitative means of financing is prohibited. For this reason, you may find many Muslims do not participate in mainstream banking.

It also translates into what is less-known and less-practiced – that one may not partake in a business where one does not have “skin in the game.” You gain from the profits of your investment, but when it doesn’t do well, you partake of the loss too.

Gambling, or financial activity where the outcome is based on pure chance, is also prohibited.

Social

The Quran is specific in certain aspects but vague in others. You might find only vague references to ritualistic activity like prayer, but when it comes to marriage and divorce, there is little ambiguity.

Sexual intercourse without a legal and consensual contract of marriage is forbidden. The Quran is also is crystal-clear on circumstances and the process of divorce and gives specific instruction of how divorce needs to be done the “halal” way. That its followers tend to overlook these directions is another matter altogether.

Dietary

The “prohibited” list is short: Blood, Alcohol and psychotropic substances, meat of pig, carrion, meat from animals that are killed by strangling, falling, goring, speared – all other means except a quick cut to the main arteries. The Quran ordains that a short prayer of thanks be said while the cut is done (this act is called dhabiha, colloquially referred to as zubaan among Urdu speakers).

Everything else is halal. All plants, vegetables and fruits are halal. Water is halal. Oxygen is halal.

I am quoting a more expansive list below from HinduJagruti dot org (!). They seem to have picked it up from a strongly adherent source.

Items that are considered as Halal

• Milk (from Cows, Goats, Sheep, Camels)
• Honey
• Fish with scales
• Plants that do not have any intoxicating effects
• Fresh as well as dried fruits
• Dry fruits / nuts like cashews and almonds
• Grains like wheat and rice

Items that are classified as Haram

• Pigs, wild boar and other animals related to these species, as well as animal byproducts obtained from these animals (like gelatin)
• Carnivorous animals and birds of prey, as well as those animals that have sharp clawed feet and pointed canines, for example – lions, tigers, monkeys, snakes, vultures, eagles etc.
• Those whose killing is forbidden in Islam, for example – ants, honeybees, woodpeckers etc.
• Animals that live both on land and in water, for example – crocodiles, frogs etc.
• Domestic animals like donkeys and mules
• Animals that have been killed by strangulation or by injury to the head, as well as animals that died naturally (and their byproducts)
• Human or animal blood, urine, faeces
• Plants or plant material with intoxicating or poisonous effects
• Alcoholic spirits or any product with alcohol in it, for example – sausages
• All poisonous and intoxicating liquids and their products
• Meat of animals slaughtered without uttering Bismillah (animals slaughtered in non-Islamic methods)

This list is pretty good - you won't find this much detail in websites of Muslim bodies.

Myths that are prevalent around “halal”

1.?????All Muslims follow these decrees uniformly and religiously

The Quran itself allows consumption of forbidden meat in cases where you have no option, such as starvation or in times of severe famine. Many Muslim sects and castes have their own interpretation of these edicts – for example, you may find a lot of Muslims in India do not consume cattle (bade ka gosht) because of Brahmin influence. Crustaceans (like crab and lobster) are enjoyed by some, frowned upon by some (the term for this is “makrooh”) and strictly forbidden by some others.

2.?????Halal meat sponsors global terrorism

This is plainly an outrageous lie without foundation. In fact, the reverse is more likely to be true. Take the case of the Taliban, for example. Islam forbids adherents from consuming and trading in psychotropic substances like alcohol and drugs. Well, the Taliban obtains a lot of their funds from the opium trade. It partly explains their need to overemphasize their piety.

The meat trade in India is dominated by large-scale organized businesses most of which are owned and run by non-Muslims. India is the biggest exporter of cattle meat, and out of the top six exporters, three are owned by non-Muslims. For example, the popular Al-Kabeer meat brand is owned by a Sabharwal. The industrial-scale poultry business is dominated by Venky’s (Hindu), Godrej (Parsi), Zorabian (Parsi), among others. Industrialized and organized suppliers dominate exports and the supply to the hotel and restaurant industry.

The bulk of Muslim butchers, in northern India especially, belong to the Qureishi caste and are small-scale or single-family businesses. These are mostly unorganized and informal; some rear their own animals, others buy their animals from organized and unorganized markets, or government-run abattoirs. When there’s a politically motivated campaign against halal meat, it is these merchants who stand to lose the most.

There are many organizations who offer halal certification, especially for access to international and Muslim markets, though recent legislation has removed this certification as a condition for meat exports. A cursory lookup will tell you that these are professionally-run for-profit certification and quality assurance businesses. But the fee for the ritual killing is minimal and goes directly to the person doing the slaughter or the dhabiha. These are usually small amounts. While some insist on the character and hygiene of the person doing the dhabiha, any one with enough skill and practice can do it. Even I have done this in my youth (I didn’t get paid for it; it was for our own consumption).

3.?????Halal certifications directly sponsor madrasas

There are qualified imams and muezzins who offer dhabiha services on the side. But these are so small and minimal that they hardly fetch anything more than a day’s meal. Most madrasas are run on donations from lay people or charitable organizations. Not every Madrasa gets the attention and financing from Gulf monarchies or Arab billionaires.

4.?????Only Islam has such dietary restrictions

This is emphatically incorrect. Judaism has similar restrictions on pork and milk products called Kashrut. Observant Christians practice dietary restrictions during Lent. Sikhism has a similar ritual slaughtering of animals called "Jhatka." As most readers of this note are likely to be Hindus, I don't need to explain the dietary restrictions therein.

Caveats

I’m not a religious scholar – and lord knows I have violated some of these codes in ways I would like to forget – but I hope that this note helps you to better understand what “halal” stands for. I am no match for what the hate-machine rolls out, though.

For more detailed and more accurate information there’s always Google.

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