I was searching through my half completed blog posts when I stumbled across an unfinished post dating back to 2018. At the time, I was reading plenty of comments on social media regarding halal certification. There was certainly an anti-Islamic sentiment on social media and I wanted to know if these were genuine concerns or bandwagon reactions. I asked myself, was this concern warranted or is this an anti-islamic rant?

I wanted to make my internet search objective, I cannot use the term research as this would be genuine and an original investigation of a selected topic with a thesis written, or at least a formal report. Instead, my blog is my opinion, whilst I try to remain as objective as I can, it is my personal opinion. I certainly have no problem with Islam, my attitude is people should follow whatever religious beliefs is their preference, as long as they do not infringe on people’s rights.

Instead, I asked the simple question, halal certification an islamic tax? It opens food manufacturers to overseas markets with a large muslim population. That is true, but is this just more than a levy? To help determine this, we need to follow the money trail, where does Islamic funding go? Apart from paying salaries, superannuation, Australian tax and business costs, including charitable donations. Is this funding used inappropriately? There is no evidence to support inappropriate funding currently.

Whilst I have neither the time nor funding to engage in a full investigative journalism. Some online preparation will allow me to build the foundations of an academic argument. To date, there has been an enquiry and the report has found that there is no direct link that halal funding is being used to sponsor terrorism.

To answer this question I need to really look at what exactly is halal certification, who is the certification authority and what is the cost? Then we need to review the benefits to food manufacturers and distributors, is this compliance, cost and quality. The enquiry found that halal certification has not increased food prices but has allowed Australian companies to access international markets.

I was able to go to the Australian parliamentary page where it describes the term halal and what it involves, haram and mashbooh. So pork is out [I knew that], also animals with fangs [I did not know that] and the rituals of livestock slaughtering are included [I knew that]. I have no problems with an individual’s religious beliefs, we have a growing number of muslim people in Australia who seek halal certification so this makes sense.

So who are the halal certification bodies in Australia?

• Adelaide Mosque Islamic Society of South Australia.
• Al-Iman Islamic Society.
• Australian Federation of Islamic Councils Inc.
• Australian Halal Development and Accreditation.
• Australian Halal Food Services.
• Global Halal Trade Centre Pty Ltd.
• Halal Australia Pty Ltd.
• Halal Certification Authority Australia.
• Islamic Coordinating Council of Victoria Pty Ltd.
• Islamic Council of Western Australia.
• Muslim Association of Riverina Wagga Wagga Inc.
• Supreme Islamic Council of Halal Meat in Australia Inc.
• Western Australia Halal Authority.