Healing Halal

Tuesday, 12 March 2013 00:49 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

THE Halal controversy, as it has sadly come to be known, was hopefully laid to rest on Monday when the private sector spearheaded by the chambers of commerce and industry together with prominent Buddhist priests and the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) decided that the Halal logo would no longer be mandatory on products sold in the local market. From now onwards it will be voluntary.

Timely as this compromise is, it came at heavy cost to the Muslim community that will now have a list of products permissible for their consumption released to mosques and displayed on the ACJU website. The very fact that they were strong armed into removing the Halal logo resulting in them now having to undergo a laborious process rather than reaching for products on market shelves, as the rest of the population will be doing, is a startling denunciation on minority rights.

Thankfully the private sector chambers and the more moderate Buddhist clergy rallied to find a compromise that would not adversely affect the business community. The three factions not only agreed that the Halal certification process would continue but that it would be done free of charge for products sold locally. This effectively ends any untruths being spread about funds from Halal being used to finance Al Qaeda or otherwise illicitly spread religion, which were unfounded to begin with.

Companies that have printed Halal logos on their packaging will continue to use them until the stocks have run out, which means that the distinctive green logo will be seen on shelves much past the 31 March deadline given by the Bodu Bala Sena and Jathika Hela Urumaya so that there will be a ‘Halal free’ Tamil and Sinhala New Year in April.

Indeed, such clear thinking and focus on the peace and unity of Sri Lanka by ACJU is commendable, given that they have consistently attempted to placate hardliners and assure them that the Halal process is in fact harmless. In previous rounds they released accounts of the Halal process showing the nominal costs it involved and then called on companies to produce two products. However the latter compromise was rejected by both the hardliners and the companies as being too impractical as it would incur extra costs.

Both the Buddhist and Muslim religious leaders at the joint press conference spoke eloquently about the need to promote inter-community harmony, sending out a clear message to the hardliners that their efforts to forge another racial divide would not be tolerated. Yet, it is unlikely that the BBS or other likeminded organisations will get the drift, given that they are tolerated and even have pockets of support.

With such mammoth efforts being put in place to defuse the artificially created Halal question, it can only be hoped that similar efforts will be made to quell calls to boycott products manufactured by Muslim companies. It must be remembered that these companies, in addition to conforming to national standards and safety measures for their products, also give employment to thousands of non-Muslims and are an integral part of the economy of Sri Lanka.

The virulent anti- Muslim campaigns raging across social media and other forums need to be urgently countered. A massive step has been taken putting national unity as foremost priority and it can only be hoped that many more will follow to preserve the hard-won peace of Sri Lanka.