Halal meat isn’t just a food preference, it’s the economic takeover of the global meat industry

Gerald Darmanin, France’s Minister of Interior–equivalent to India’s Home Minister–has expressed shock over separate aisles for Halal and Kosher products–ritualized food of Muslims and Jews–at the supermarkets.

“Always been shocked to walk into a supermarket and see that there was an aisle of such [religious] community food,” Gerald told BFM TV. “I understand very well that halal meat is sold in a supermarket, what I regret is the aisles… So you have the aisle for Muslims, the kosher aisle and then all the others… Why specific aisles?” he added.

In India, many media houses and activists have consistently raised the problem with Halal food industry, especially in meat products segments. One of the essential qualifications for a meat product to get Halal certificate is that the slaughter must be performed by Muslim, which automatically disqualifies the non-Muslims for the job. It is well-known that radicals in the Muslim community tend to impose its will on followers of other religions where Muslims are in majority.

The ‘meat industry’ across the world is being ‘monopolized’ by the Muslims. It is a known fact that the followers of Islam consume ‘halal’ meat only. As per the definition of Halal Certification Services India Pvt Ltd (HCS), a state-run agency providing halal certification, ‘only the animals slaughtered in the name of Allah are halal’. The slaughterer must be ‘Muslim’ and Bismillah Allahu-Akbar needs to be recited before slaughtering the animal.

The halal food market has grown exponentially in European countries in the last few decades along with the growth of the Muslim population. France, the country with the largest Muslim population in Europe, has 8 billion dollars halal food market.

According to a study by Adroit Market research, the global halal market is worth more than 500 billion dollars. To give a comparison, this is more than the GDP of Uttar Pradesh or Maharashtra. By 2025, the global halal meat industry is expected to touch 9.71 trillion dollars with a complete monopoly of Muslims over it.

As per Food Standards Agency of United Kingdom, “51 per cent of lamb, 31 per cent of chicken, and 7 per cent of beef slaughtered in Britain – from a total of 16 million animals per week – is now ‘religiously killed’, which is way more than the total Muslim population of the country, which is only 5 per cent.

By forcing the food processing companies to follow the religious diktats, the Muslim community is not only ensuring that the money they spent on food products goes to the people of the community, but, also monopolizing the jobs in the food industry.

The supermarkets are pandering to religious minorities by selling specific products for them, that too on separate aisles.” I’m simply calling on CEOs to understand that they can contribute to public peace and the fight against separatism,” said Gerald, the Interior Minister of France.

The halal meat industry is “of the Muslims, by the Muslims, but, for everyone’. In countries around the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and India, the tiny Muslims minority has forced the majority community to adhere to their practices and standards.

This is nothing but a sort of economic jihad where a certain section of the community has ‘monopolized’ a trillion-dollar industry in the name of religious preferences. The first lesson in elementary economics is that ‘Monopoly is bad for the community’. But here a whole industry, whose value is worth more than GDP of some of the largest economies of the world, has been ‘monopolized,’ and economists, lawyers, and activists are silent over it.

For the first time, a powerful politician has raised the issues with the Halal food industry, and this must become a rallying point against the monopolization of the food industry. Also, the separate food and clothing by a religious society lead to a “parallel society”.

Macron talked about how the Muslims in France are trying to create a “parallel society” and promoting “Islamic Separatism” within the country. “A parallel order, to erect other values, develop another organisation of society, separatist at first, but whose final goal is to take control. And this is what makes us reject freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, the right to blasphemy,” said Macron in a speech delivered a few days before the beheading of Samuel Paty.

If the countries around the world want a crackdown on radical Islam, the start should be from the ban on the sale of halal food and clothing because these practices play important role in the creation of separate identity.