Chris Dobney
The Byron Bay Coookie Company has refused to comment over orchestrated attacks by an anti-halal certification group on its Facebook page against the company’s products, particularly its Anzac biscuits.
After months of attacks by the group, calling itself Halal Choices, the company put a statement on its Facebook page this week, saying certification was an essential requirement for its export sales.’
‘Byron Bay Cookie Company cookies are halal certified as we proudly make products that are enjoyed by people all over the world. We are fiercely proud of being an Australian business whose products are locally manufactured and exported to markets throughout Asia, Europe and America,’ the statement read.
‘These export sales are an essential part of our business, and crucial to preserving investment and employment here in Australia.’
The Facebook comments that followed this week’s statement range from the apparently rational to the downright hair-brained.
Melinda Neist wrote, ‘As a beef producer and knowing the inhumane treatment of livestock subjected to halal slaughter, we are horrified that any Australian business would promote halal, whether they use meat in their product or not. None of our family or friends will ever purchase your products again and we will spread the word far and wide!’
On the other side of the fence, Louisa Breen wrote, ‘Halal means “this is something that someone who eats halal can eat”, exactly the same as kosher food is classed as anything that complies with kosher food preparation laws.
‘Nearly all the food we eat is both kosher and halal: it’s just things which are manufactured with multiple ingredients on production lines which may be contaminated with other products need official certification.’
The anti-halal certification movement received a kick-along earlier this year when Today Tonight included a segment on halal certification in March, featuring a Halal Choices activist ‘exposing’ the fact that some products that are halal certified don’t mention it on their packaging.
The anti-halal campaign was lent some apparent legitimacy by an article published in the right-leaning academic journal Quadrant in May by Antonia Newtown, that claimed halal certification was part of worldwide domination plan by Muslim clerics.
‘As the Byron Bay Cookie Company, Cadbury and Purina Catfood, and hundreds of other non-Muslim companies are finding out, Australians have started to notice manufacturers’ amenable attitude to the suggestion made by certification bodies regarding potential Muslim buyers of their products, both in Australia and in Muslim countries, should they sign up and pay up. Research by interested citizens shows that Australians have little choice but to donate to the cause of Islamic expansion and imposition of sharia worldwide because of widespread manufacturers’ compliance with the scheme,’ she wrote.
The writer’s name may be unfamiliar to regular readers of Quandrant, and for good reason: it is the pseudonym of a Melbourne-based contributor who claimed her desire for anonymity ‘reflects her frequent travels in the Muslim world’.
In October last year, News Ltd published an article claiming that the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI), which authorises independent halal certifiers in Australia, was ‘dictating how much Australian companies must pay to have their food certified as halal’.
The article maintained that MUI was ‘raising money for Islamic schools and mosques by forcing Australian businesses to pay an inflated religious levy on meat exports’.
It also claimed the MUI had expelled three Australian certifiers of Halal meat – even ordering one to stop doing business because it was charging less than its rivals.
Little evidence was supplied for these claims other than a comment by MUI chairman Amidhan Shaberah that ‘we have to standardise the charge to avoid any unfair competition between certifiers’.
Why would cookies need to be Halal certified, they are cookies.
So now it’s cookies under the scanner. It’s just the same anti-Muslim xenophobia that saw attacks on women wearing hijabs. Bigots will stoop to anything, encouraged by their supporters in the Murdoch rags who are happy to play Tony Abbott’s game of divide and rule the people through misinformation, fear and loathing and phoney wars.
As Louisa Breen says: ‘Halal means “this is something that someone who eats halal can eat”, exactly the same as kosher food is classed as anything that complies with kosher food preparation laws’.
Will these bigots be wanting a ban on kosher food next?
If Muslims were eating kosher they would!
Good on Byron Bay Cookies for creating a quality product that will appeal to cookie aficionados everywhere.
Harsha Prabhu
Byron Bay
I fail to see the problem – certification does not change the food, it simply provides information needed by some consumers. Byron Bay Cookies have chosen to purchase this assurance. Big deal. (Pass another macadamia cookie please)
Kosher and Halal certification is a money making exercise soley and a way religions can make money OMG give me a break. Now BBC has to bow to rock apes. am frightened, VERY frightened
I suppose Jews are aiming for world domination by insisting on kosher food? Hmm… even they have found there are more effective ways, like buying politicians. Actually, Harsha Prabhu, Muslims do eat kosher food, because kosher food is halal. Halal means permitted for Muslims. They are not allowed, for example, to eat pig, or drink alcohol, so those things are not halal, they are haram. But things other than food and drink can be halal or haram. Gosh, there are some terrible fools around. Even writing for leading academic journals.
The point is that a percentage of the certification fee levied by the MUI is actually funding Islamist extremists in the middle east becasue some of this money gets distributed to those who channel it that way via charitable fronts. Does the Byron Bay Cookie Co enjoy knowing that they contribute to terrorism? The fact is there is no reason to certify cookies as they do not contain any non halal ingredients. Read this http://billmuehlenberg.com/2014/09/02/halal-certification-follow-the-money/ It’s a racket to direct and siphon off money from the infidels who see cash rewards in trade with Muslims, into Muslim hands to help expand their desire to take over the world. People like Harsha Prahbu, spokesman for anything which gives him reason to protest, are profoundly ignorant of the facts and use shallow pretentious arguments to simply win favour with their mates. They are what the nazis used to call useful idiots in the program by Muslims to take over the world and they use politically correct jargon and labels to demonise those who oppose them. They practice political correctness as a means of attaining some sort of vicarious power while undermining the society which succors them but which they openly hate.Much like the Muslims they openly support.
Why do we have to bend over backwards to appease Muslims? They come from societies that do not condescend to other creeds or religions, whether its food, dress or social/interpersonal relationships.
Bad move from Byron Cookies
Dear Rocket Scientist,
In response to your query “Why would cookies need to be Halal certified, they are cookies.” you obviously overlook that cookies are not just cookies but the sum of the ingredients used… like possibly animal fats (butter, lard, etc.) Halal merely states that no contents are contrary to their religious doctrines…like eating food prepared with bacon fat or other yummy contents.
If these critics of the Byron Bay Cookie Company really believe we should not eat halal food (i.e. food that is generally accepted as Halal) why don’t they show us the way. Since most of the food we eat in Australia (including fruits and vegetables) are halal these people are going to get pretty hungry.
I haven’t heard anything so stupid as this before. They can always put kosher pretty much the same as halal. It does not say much about their education . Hopefully common sense (rather rare these days) will prevail.
A friend was telling me a story; he was in a non multi national supermarket looking for a jar of cherries in the canned and bottled fruit section, unable to locate them he asked for assistance and was led to a small section where the bottled cherries were found on the bottom shelf next to totally unrelated products, on inquiring as to why they were to be found here he was told that,”this is the Kosher section”. I have no idea why bottled cherries need to be certified as kosher either.
I wonder if the Kosher section is next to the Halal section?
Will we soon be shopping by Religious Sections rather than by Product?
AnneCelest
So sickened by the cruelty inflicted on poor helpless creatures by Muslims. Why comply with their barbaric methods? Have just watched a video from Animals Australia about the unimaginable horror that is the live export trade to Middle Eastern countries. I’ll be voting for the Animal Justice Party at the elections.
It’s not just food products that are attracting halal certification: it’s items like plastic containers, packaging and transport that make up part of the supply chain, each attracting a royalty. And non food items such as medicine, cosmetics, vitamins, feminine hygiene products, pet food. Since when do pets need to eat halal?
Your article points out that it’s the people from Halal Choices who are behind this push to stop the halalification of our products and then mention the ‘right leaning’ Quadrant. There is nothing left or right about this pushback against halal accreditation. A simple Google search reveals that halal certification is a trillion dollar business, estimated to reach $10 trillion per annum globally by 2030.
It’s a relatively new phenomenon, first mentioned as a means to dominate the world’s finances in 2010 in Karachi at the first Global Halal Congress when leading a European Muslim cleric urged the international Muslim community to conquer the world through the halal movement.
Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sanjak, Croatia and Slovenia, was speaking at a reception hosted by the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) and he urged the Muslim Ummah to conquer the world through Halal movement as Halal means pure and hygiene and non-Muslim world has no hesitation accepting it. Addressing the reception, Dr Ceric said that Halal movement has the strength to lead Muslims to rule the global economy as the food and other services are the basic need of every human being.
It is apparent that halal is being used as an instrument of Islamic mission (dawa),bringing the oblivious non-Muslim world increasingly under the authority of sharia law. And you wonder why so many Australians are protesting?
Its also a crime calling them ANZAC cookies, they are called biscuits in this country