Dr. Hüseyin Kami BÜYÜKÖZER
The guarantee of the halal and tayyib lifestyle of all humanity can only be achieved by implementing the halal and tayyib standard from embryo to seed. The verse in the last Book of Allah (cc) that addresses all humanity clearly declares this fact:
“O humanity! Eat from what is lawful and good on the earth and do not follow Satan’s footsteps. He is truly your sworn enemy.”
(Surah Al Baqarah, Ayat 168)
“Say, “Are those who know equal to those who do not know?” None will be mindful ˹of this˺ except people of reason.” (Surah Az-Zumar, Ayat 9)
Due to the global events that have developed in the last 200 years, new searches have become inevitable in societies. First of all, the search for halal food, which is indispensable for Muslims, has come to the fore. The search for halal products, which has a history of 150 years, started as a civil society activity in Muslim societies and still continues. In countries where the majority are non-Muslims, these demands of Muslims have been found justified, such as Kosher for Jews and Vegan for vegetarians, and have begun to be implemented between civil society organizations and companies that calculate commercial interests. Some states have also secured this right of Muslim societies with a humanitarian understanding by law.
During this process, halal certification institutions all over the world have tried to develop a system that takes into account the different views between sects in halal products, and it has become necessary to state these differences in their logos and certificates as well as in their standards.
It is an important issue that the different views between sects are stated in the certificate prepared for the product. In other words, if a product certified as halal by one sect seems objectionable to another sect, we should state this in the product certificate.
As GIMDES, we saw this reality 10 years ago and tried to encourage the organizations working on certification in the world to come together and prepare a single standard accompanied by the Quran and Hadith with the slogan of “ONE VOICE FULL UNITY”, and we still continue to work.
GIMDES’s proposal on this issue is as follows; there should be boxes for sects under the product certificate and the sect that the product is objectionable to should be marked there.
If we address our sectarian differences on a common ground with a unifying and inclusive method in the creation of a single global halal standard, the halal assurance system of the entire Islamic Ummah in food will be adapted to our certification service.
