| August 8, 2008 Halaal institutions act as one arch, effecting success for corporations who have narrowly defined life as commodities to be exploited. The ensuing brutal rape of the earth, through the vehicle of the stamp, guarantees exploitation by virtue of the guaranteed Muslim consumer.
This built-in market is authorised by those who appellate for themselves the title of "learned" scholar, representing institutions that have, in turn, validated injustice in the name of God.
According to the International Market Bureau of Canada, the Halaal stamp is worth over $560-billion annually. The stamp itself opens and closes the markets of over 1,8-billion Muslims globally and is the primary mode of admission for multinationals (MNC) such as Monsanto, the biotech/pesticide giant.
A source close to the South African National Halaal Association (SANHA) and the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) tells me that the former earns R2,5-million each year, with the latter grossing just over R4-million. This cost is passed on to the consumer on behalf of an institution that claims to represent just 1,5% of the population.
The motive of Mullahs, perhaps, is to control the content of thought by falsifying difficulties associated with understanding and interpreting the Qur'an
Naturally, these difficulties are reflective of the Mullahs, who often have trouble understanding even the basic principles relating to Islamic law. (We could not, after all, say they are purposely being ignorant in order to accrue funds and maintain societal control and power using religion as a tool?)
One good example is the accidental or deliberate obfuscation of "Halaal meat". While Zabiha refers to the process and methods of slaughtering the animal, Halaal refers to the totality concerning the nature of the animals life — how it was grown and treated (free to roam or caged), whether the creature lived in a state of comfort or anxiety, the content of the feed (GM, animal by-products, etc) and whether the animal was forced to consume, or was injected with growth hormones and preservatives such as nitrate.
Rainbow Chickens grow their GM "broilers" to full weight in just under 35 days. Legs splayed, de-beaked, crippled and deformed, immobilised through lack of space, choking on ammonia and other chemicals, skin stained with shit — is a life lost in a little shoe box.
Rainbow rakes in R2-billion per annum revenue, with fast food joints like KFC contributing over 32%. SA produces 13,8-billion chickens per week and imports another R1,2-billion, or 293-thousand tonnes, each year. Chicken is big business.
Many KFC joints are certified Halaal; Rainbow Chickens is certified Halaal. God approves, according to SANHA.
The trillion-dollar global cosmetics industry is dependent on vivisection or animal experimentation, as are biomedical, military and household industries. Each year, millions of innocent animals (primates, dogs, cats, rabbits) are held for indefinite periods of time in cages before being tortured, dissected, burned, experimented on, blinded and gassed. Are these products Halaal?
The parable of the people of Al-Hijr, (the Tribe of Thamud) who created the great city of Petra — one of many trading hubs in their empire, powerfully illustrates a nation that was brought low or destroyed by way of a humble she-camel. The Waqf, symbolically presented as the trust of man, alludes to the larger Waqf of the earth and the sacred nature of life.
"A Clear Sign has come to you from your Lord. This is the She-Camel, as a Sign for you. Leave her alone to eat on Allah's earth and do not harm her in any way, or a painful punishment will afflict you." (Qur'an, 7:73)
[Prophet Salih] He said, "Here is a she-camel. She has a time for drinking and you have a time for drinking. Do not do anything to harm her, or the punishment of a terrible day will come down on you." (Qur'an, 26:141-157)
Has SANHA fought to protect the Waqf?
The last thing that EB Lockhat, public relations officer of the South Africa National Halaal Institute (SANHA) said on the phone was, "get a court order".
"You won't find a single Halaal institution that functions differently."
This was in response to a series of questions concerning SANHA's criteria, relating to the certification of consumer goods that are, without a doubt, the product of unjust socioeconomic and ecological practices.
Certainly, SANHA did not create the ideological paradigms that have engendered the facilitation and expansion of a commodified and exploited indigenous ecology — but, by overstepping the boundaries of "theology" via the Halaal stamp — ie: validating commercial goods in the name of God, they have not only presented themselves as a leading authority on the moral, legal, scientific, civic and spiritual code of Islam, but have also accorded to themselves the "authoritative" right to engage with commercial industries.
They assure us of their capabilities by calling themselves Alims, or scholars of Islam, purporting to be experts in the Shariah, or law of the Qur'an, the textual reference for over 1,8-billion Muslims. The Shariah of course is dynamic and depends on the exigencies of the age.
A quick browse through the stamps placed on various products in your average grocery store reveals that SANHA obviously believes God to be a force of pure, unadulterated evil.
God, through the vehicle of SANHA, has legitimised unsustainable ecological practices resulting in deforestation, desertification, severe environmental pollution, unsustainable use and pollution of fresh water sources, habitat destruction, critically endangered species and ecosystems, as well as human trafficking (United Nations: 27-million slaves globally). There are also sweatshops and agri labour industries that characterise the miserable working conditions in Third World countries, including child labor, the "flesh" industry with its gross abuse and torture of animals, the non-transparent extractive industries in all its variables, the destructive cash-cropping industries that devour fertile land rendering it barren after just three years, intensive use of pesticides and other toxic chemical cocktails, vivisection, the militarisation of resource rich regions, contamination of the air, soil and water and the monopolisation of industries.
According to SANHA, God has given the OK to corporations that exploit the vulnerabilities of those (flora, fauna and human) who have no voice. Fortunately for the multinationals, the pulpit pushers are on their side.
MNC's perceive natives and the ecology as a raw, unfinished entity in need of progress — they justify their actions by drawing on the rhetoric of imperial trading ideologies that developed parallel to the colonialism of "terra incognita" or the distant lands; these regions were said to be peopled by the primitive, in need of domestication.
No line was drawn between the ecology and the natives.
After the outward abolition of the slave trade and its derivatives (products and industries) comprising over 80% of trade in the British Empire, humans began to be classified along a taxonomical scale. The level of exploitation is apportioned as per the level of humanity accorded.
Then, as now, cash crops are inextricably linked to slavery. In El Salvador, where Coca-Cola derives much of its sugar, child slavery is still common. Paramilitaries are regularly used by outsourced bottlers to keep "laborers" in line, and union heads are often threatened or killed.
SANHA has not only internalised this perspective, but simultaneously reinforces it through the lack of rights accorded to living creatures and the earth.
But Islam means the active movement towards peace. A simple verse such as "O mankind: Eat of what is lawful and good on earth" (Qur'an 2: 168), reveals to us many things, namely that the ideological stance of the Mullahs is not merely the refutation of this Islam (peace) but the enemy of it.
After all, how good or lawful can the immediate ecological crisis — animal cruelty or cancer — as a result of environmental pollution, growth hormones or additives, really be?
Rarely, if ever, has the word Halaal or Lawful appeared in the Qur'an, without the accompanying word Tayyib or "Good" alluding to the environmental and socioeconomic principles detailed in the Qur'an.
In contrast to the 215 verses relating to the physical act of prayer, there are 900 verses on water as a source of life, the sociopolitical ramifications and laws extending to water distribution and hydro-power.
Similarly, there are over 1 400 verses relating to the economics of the political-ecology, with special emphasis on economic paradigms such as that of fair trade (measure for measure), as well as parables directly illustrating the injustice and effects of monopolies and so on.
The Ayah (5:8) states: "O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for Allah, as witnesses to fair dealing" clearly alluded to fair trade and transparency in all commercial dealings. The Surah, Al-Baqarah, details economic and commercial dealings at length.
Did SANHA miss an entire chapter?
The Qur'an as an interdisciplinary work, concatenates the physical sciences such as geography, zoology, economics, and biology with the spiritual sciences such as orientation, the duality of man's nature and the contrasts between belief and action, heaven and earth.
In order for SANHA to qualify as interpreters, they would have to have considerable training at the highest level — as scientists, theologists, psychologists, all in one, especially in relation to the diversity and injustice that underpins modern trade, inextricably linked to biotechnology and cash cropping.
Which products then correspond to the Halaal and Tayyib criteria?
Fair trade, cruelty free, unionised, sustainable and organic products are 100% in line with Islamic principles, according protection not only to the human body and the environment, but simultaneously ensuring that the economic distribution of justice is acknowledged and provided for.
We don't need SANHA to tell us that. |
