Whether you like it or not, and whether you know it or not, a portion of your everyday purchases might be supporting Islam in the form of a halal tax. Numerous NZ companies such as Nutella, Dairyworks, Angel Bay and Ferrero chocolate pay a portion of their sales as a Halal tax. You can find more companies listed here.
But in South Australia, Muslim supporters say it’s haram (forbidden) to advertise that your meat is not halal (permissible) and they have taken umbrage because a local butcher is advertising that his products are not halal. This butcher is vocal about stating that he does not support Islam – and why shouldn’t he?
“The Valley Butchers in Adelaide became the subject of a complaint to Ad Standards after the shop owners put up a sign that read “non halal certified” on the front of their store, surrounded by smaller stickers of kangaroos and emus.”
News.com.AU
This butcher is evidently a patriotic Australian targeting patriotic Australians, which is perfectly legitimate.
A complaint over the signage said it “pokes fun of a specific group of people based on religious belief”.
“It is very intentional and obvious,” the complaint continued. “Jokes like this on a public shopfront perpetuate a culture of vilification towards religious minorities that results in harm towards them.”
This is not a joke and this butcher is no joker. He appears quite serious about supporting his target market in the local community and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
The butcher is not excluding anyone from buying his meat. He is not saying Muslims can’t buy it. It is Islam that dictates that Muslims must buy halal meat. It is Islam that has set up the rules around Muslims purchasing meat – not the butcher!
“Valley Butchers defended itself to Ad Standards, saying the sign intended “no malice” towards the community and was simply intended to inform people they didn’t sell halal-certified products.”
If someone of another religious faith, which is not Islam, finds it offensive to purchase products that pay the halal tax this, upfront advertising makes their decision clear and you would think any supplier is within their rights to make this clear.
If you don’t want to pay the halal tax you have to carefully check the small print on the back.
Bring it on, I say. Encourage manufacturers to advertise non-halal in large letters on the front of their products so that people like me who don’t want to pay the halal tax can buy products without reaching for their magnifying glasses.
The Whale Meat Company in New Zealand sources as much meat as possible from abattoirs and works that do not pay the halal religious tax. However, the vast majority of NZ meat is killed halal and it does use cuts from those sources. Once it enters the Whale Meat factory however it loses all halal status as they make ham, bacon and pork sausages in the Whale meat facility and ship a pack of bacon with every box.