A Concerned look at the actions of the Halal Food Authority ( HFA) since their arrival on our shores

This blog will after time show nationalists the meddling in our food and hygiene laws over the years by Islam through the EU culminating in major changes in all parts of the UK it will clearly show how they have manipulated our system and what their end result is . After studying everything concerned with this anti British establishment and how they have meddled in our political system since the early 90's will I am sure make some Disturbing reading for all the people of the the British Isles . The link below will give you an insight to what I have to disclose but the facts will show that their q's and a's conflict with what they say within their mosques .

Masood Khawaja and Lord Nazir Ahmed

HFA Q's and A's

In order to meet these requirements we would always also ascertain that the Welfare of Animal Slaughtering and Killing rules 1999-400 (WASK 99-400) is adhered to. WASK 99-400 would address all issues of hygiene and animal welfare.

Now a particular section of Muslim groups in the UK has embarked on a notion that what throughout the globe is being done is wrong or not according to the laid down Islamic axiom. It is true that there was a time (some decades ago technology was not used even in the UK in slaughterhouses) when slaughtering was not done en mass. One has to progress by not breeching the covenant iterated above. Halal Food Authority (HFA), London is no different in principles to the other organisations say, in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Brazil or Netherlands in monitoring and authenticating meat and poultry that is validated as halal. Usage of controlled electric stunning - with the dictum “no stunning to kill” is not only permissible, it is the only way to progress. As far as the mortem of the animal is concerned, this is verified by the veterinary surgeon. In fact he or she is there to observe the animal pre-slaughter (for health and fitness) during slaughter (to ascertain that animal welfare is being adhered to as well) and post-slaughter (to confirm that the carcass is fit for human consumption).

Halal Food Authority (HFA), London, has over the last fourteen years made the word halal - a buzz-word for the food industry. Nice to see that Muslims are not relying on vegetarian or kosher verified meet and foods. HFA is proud that nationally and internationally it is serving the Muslim community for validating meat, poultry and foodstuffs for halal status.

Prison, hospital and school meals together with airlines meals are contractually being prepared with HFA logo. HFA is working with Food Standards Agency and has done many consultations on food related issues.

Seminar acknowledged the fact that progress of halal has also benefited non-Muslims to enjoy cuisine and dishes that were not partial to them in time past.

A stun monitor was also presented and demonstrated by Mr. Charles Clarke of MLCSL and Mr. Tony Goodger of EBLEx. With this advanced technological equipment it would be possible to slightly (controlled) stun the ovine animal and ensure that the animal does not succumb to the current prior to slaughtering.

Animal that does not survive the procedure would be electronically indicated enabling it to be removed from the halal claim. This monitor is already in use and is expected to be break through in the road to progress.

Mr. Masood Khawaja, president of Halal Food Authority in his address, mentioned that fourteen years of assiduous work has enabled the word halal to be recognised. With many regulations backing halal meat, poultry and foodstuffs. Mr. Khawaja emphasised the point that the Muslim entrepreneurs should pick the reins of halal trade and redress the situation of having 70-75% halal being procured by non-Muslims. He said that time has come for Muslims to be producers and procurers of halal and, not only endorsers or consumers.

All in all it was a successful well-attended seminar that reflected “Progress of Halal”. By demand, now Halal Food Authority is lining up more seminars to impact the issues and resolves of common misgivings of halal.

October 9th, 2008

E-mail: info@halalfoodauthority.co.uk

Halal on the Move

“Allah is He Who created the heaven and the earth and, causes water to descend from the sky, by it producing fruits as food for you, and makes the ships to be of service to you, that they may run upon the sea at His command and, has made of service to you the rivers; And makes the sun and the moon constant subservient in their courses, to be of service to you, and has made of service to you the night and the day. And He gives you all you ask of Him and, if you would count the bounty of Allah you cannot reckon it. Man is verily wrong-doer, ungrateful.” Ibrahim 14:32-34

First of all, I would like to congratulate the organizers of this auspicious seminar and successful food exhibition. Secondly allow me to thank them for their credulous faith in facilitating me to deliver my third talk in as many years of formidable portent exhibitions. In the name of Allah I have already started to scribe my fourth speech for next year! My previous topics were to elucidate 'science and technology' and 'progression' that would and has been beneficial to the Muslims. And how compliance of Islamic jurisprudence making science subservient would be used with efficacy for authentic halal criteria in meat, food and additives and flavouring processes and, how it would be influential in future developments in this modern electronic world.

Islam and the Qur`an has an answer to every question in relation to life, water, food, human and animal behaviour, orbits of the planets and their functions, politics, and the Nature and why the Creator created all that surrounds the humanity. Amelioration and change has always taken place in physical aspects and were accepted. However, no one is allowed to or capable of vacillating or supplanting the Islamic dictum and its theories.

Above verses of the Qur`an would be better understood whence read together with 16:10 to 14. These state that:

“He it is who sends down water from the sky, from which you have drink and from which are trees on which you send your beasts to pasture. With it (water) He causes crops to grow for you and, the olive and the date-palm and grapes and all kinds of fruit. In this indeed a sign for people who reflect. And He has compelled the night and day and the sun and the moon to be of service to you and the stars are made subservient by His command. In this indeed are signs for people who have sense. And whatsoever He has created for you in the earth of divers hues, in it is indeed a sign for people who take heed. And He it is Who has compelled the sea to be of service that you eat fresh meat from there, and bring you out from there ornaments which you wear. And you see the ships ploughing it that you the mankind may seek of His bounty and that perhaps you may give thanks.”

All His creations that are beneficial, nourishing and permissible for the human usage, therefore, are permissible and halal in various acceptable usage, except whence particularly proscribed.

Having created and provided the specific modes of sustenance the Al-Mighty is guiding the transportation: Bani Israel 17:70 says,

“Verily we have honoured the children of Adam. We carry them on land and the sea, and have made provision of good things for them, and have preferred them above many of those whom We created with a marked preferment”

Reading further in the Holy Book it says in chapter Al-Mu`min 40:79-81

“Allah it is Who has appointed for you cattle that you may ride on some of them and eat some. Many benefits you have from them and – that you may satisfy by their means a need that is in your hearts and, may be borne upon them as upon the ship. And He shows you His signs. Which of His signs then you would deny?”

“Halal on the move” has to be looked at in two ways. Primarily, what has been done and achieved so far in the western hemisphere, especially in the UK and, most importantly how to handle the payload of expansion of the halal market. Halal Food Authority (HFA) has assiduously been instrumental in orientating the procurers and providers of halal meat and foodstuffs and, also in bringing home to the Muslim community what was needed, contractually audited and processed with compliance of the rules in vogue in the European Union.

With the influx of Muslims in Europe from various parts of the globe, in the fifties and the sixties, it became necessary to furnish the trade with halal permissible items of meat, poultry and foodstuffs. To achieve this a lot had to be done in persuading the manufacturers to accommodate within their respective trades for merchandising what was required for this emerging market. It would not be devoid of the truth if it were said that to start with the industry response was nothing short of peremptory rebuff and bellicose attitude. Reason for that was based on the misunderstanding of slaughtering and the animal welfare issues. It was perceived without cogitation that Muslim slaughtering methodology was cruel. Having addressed the issues, HFA is proud to report that relevant laws have duly been reworded or amended and, the providers are enjoying pecuniary benefits having complied to the Islamic dietary requirements, and the Muslims are not only enjoying their traditional meals, they are also becoming partial to western cuisines. All authentication and endorsement of halal products by HFA is done contractually. Statistics show that more than 80-85% providers of halal meat, poultry and foodstuffs in the UK are non-Muslim establishments. Tenacity of HFA efforts turned into imperturbable aplomb of halal axiom.

It would be prudent to note that Muslims were inventors and traders in Islamic Golden Age. From windmills to distillation, purification to filtration plants in fact were Muslim ideas. We have to be proud of mechanical robots created by al-Jazari way back in 1206. Scientific achievements of Ibn al-Haytham, Abu al-Rayhan al-Biruni and Musa al- Khwarizmi are well catalogued. As far as technology is concerned, paper making, camera, coffee, hard soap, shampoo, valve, piston pump, vaccination, fountain pen, glasses, mechanical clocks and even modern way of writing cheques are some of the Muslim inventions. They were also well-versed in economy and were explorers. Arab empires like Umayyads and Abbasids were full of economists. Likewise Ibn Batttuta was an explorer of good repute. Muslim were running paper and steel mills and, were crossing mighty seas to do various trades continent by continent. It is said that there was a time when Muslim traders, sailors and entrepreneurs were tops in their own class. Even in fifteenth century an astronomer and mathematician called Ghayyathuddin Ibn Masoud put the decimal point in arithmetic. They were also advanced in agriculture, which is evident even today in olive orchards and vineyards of Europe. Muslims at their peak used to trade in commodities like paper, wool, wax, silk, pottery, gold and fruits like dates, melons and olives. They even created discipline of meetings and drafted terms like 'chairperson'.

Having invented, worked with science and technology and provided zenith of global trade what happened? This is not a place to analyse it. It suffices to say that those were the people of yesteryears and left a good everlasting impression not only on the Muslim community; the other nations and cultures learnt a lot from their expertise.

Perspicacious words are not intended to air the existing discord in the community. However, perfunctory attitudes of applying theories without rigid practice of approved common criteria is paving the way of creating a gulf and some are having field-day by sending wrong vibes to Muslims as far as food and production hygiene is concerned. Corollary derivation from this erroneous notion is dysfunctional and poignantly distances us Muslims from rest of the industrial world.

Why should not one rue about antipathy to aspects of progression? For example, rules applied to non-Muslims who part-take in halal trade are different to Muslim owned establishments. Out of over ten thousand or so halal restaurants in UK, owned by Muslims from various parts of the world, almost 98% have license to sell alcohol or operate on corkage system. No mosque has yet declined to take their donation by giving reason that their earnings are tainted. However, if a non-Muslim proprietor of an establishment has a similar facility, he would be castigated and reprimanded. On the other hand, a Muslim working on a supermarket check-out is demanding that some other co-worker would have to till the bottle of wine bought by the customer! What about the pack of bacon and pork joint that is in the same trolley and a proscribed item!

Even after these anomalies we find that halal trade is on the up. The indigenous population of UK has become partial to approved authenticated halal dishes and cuisines. In fact, the Muslim population is around two million, which is about 3% and, halal trade including catering and fresh and frozen foods is reaching 33-34%. However, I dare say that Muslims are far from reaping from this yield, since as iterated earlier eighty five percent providers and manufacturers do not hail from the Muslim community.

Likewise, Muslims are not somehow sharing bulk of the halal trade between the continents, say, EU to the Muslim countries. Seven million Muslims in the USA are to be served. More than fifteen million Muslim customers are waiting in EU countries alone for most of halal supplies for their every day consumption. If the figures are anything to go by, there is not much movement of trade from the Muslim countries to the EU, UK or the USA. Muslim entrepreneurs must come forward to fill in the trade deficit of halal supplies. It would appear that Muslims instead of being providers have become end-users.

The other side of the ‘Halal on the move’ is that that we should put contractual trust in non-Muslim procurers, manufacturers and suppliers and even transporters. HFA has managed to do this by entering into an agreement that has to be signed by both the endorsers and the endorsees to ensure that Muslim and non-Muslim providers are orientated to the fact that they will have to follow the halal dictum. Slaughtering rules would be observed, any change in ingredients, constituents and even suppliers of the same would be advised to the HFA first, so that stringent checks could be made of the validity of the halal claim. Should the processor have the occasion of out-sourcing to manufacture, they have to be approved by the HFA first, just like the named plants were done in the first instance. Muslims must never mention, “what do the non-Muslims know about halal” whilst broaching the subject of halal meat supplies or distribution of foodstuffs. Contract binds them for validity of halal, food safety and hygiene thereof.

We should also acknowledge that right from strengthening the halal slaughtering rules to the definition of halal and encapsulating the relevant hygiene and food safety rules, both the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) through the EU directives have done a great service to the Muslims. Whence we look at a recently published document of DEFRA, under the heading of ‘Animal Welfare Delivery Strategy for England and peruse the introduction that says “all those who are responsible for animals must ensure good standards of welfare for them and, those who have contact with them, or benefit from animals, must pay due regard to their welfare” and reading it in junction with five freedoms therein given:

* Freedom from hunger and thirst

* Freedom form discomfort

* Freedom from hunger and thirst

* Freedom form discomfort

* Freedom from pain, injury and disease

* Freedom to express normal behaviour and

• *Freedom from fear and distress.

It is more than positive that some one who had the knowledge of the Islamic theology drafted it!

Similarly perusing through the then Draft Regulation of the European Parliament of the Council laying down the general principles for the European Food Authority under articles 37, 95, 137 and 152(4)(b) thereof section one states “the free movement of safe and wholesome food is an essential aspect of the internal market and contributes significantly to the health and well-being of citizens, and to their social and economics interests”. I will invite you to check HFA website and, that would define halal in this way; “wholesome, pure and fit for human consumption”. How pleasant and heartening it is to note that apart from not invoking Allah’s name there is a full Islamic commitment to serve the European community.

In peroration I would invite Muslim thinkers to join the global teams of endorsers and certifiers of halal meat, poultry and products in ensuring compliance of Qur`anic injunctions together with adherence of general hygiene, food safety and environmental regulations in vogue. These facilities should be accorded to any establishment or country regardless of their religious persuasion and belief. Halal has become a global buzzword. It is on the move. I would implore that may it be worth and permissible for everyone, nationally and internationally and moreover for the generations to come.

Masood Khawaja
President, Halal Food Authority

easyFairs®
Food on the Move
Excel Centre, Docklands, London
16-17 October 2007