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Why 'Halal Tax' Conspiracy Theories are So Hard to Stomach – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
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OPINION
Why 'Halal Tax' Conspiracy
Theories are So Hard to
Stomach
By Shakira Hussein
ABC RELIGION AND ETHICS
15 APR 2015
Comments (3)
On Easter Saturday, I attended a rally in Melbourne's
Federation Square - one of sixteen "Reclaim Australia"
rallies held across Australia to protest against what the
THE MESSAGE OF THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST HALAL
organisers described as "halal tax, Sharia law and
Islamisation."
HERE. THEIR PRESENCE MAKES AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY
Placards proclaimed that "Islam is the enemy of the West" and
"Halal is Sharia law," and urged sympathisers to "Reclaim food
free of Sharia."
When I asked Reclaim Australia supporters what they meant by
their "Stop Sharia law!" slogan, they cited beheadings and
burqas, but also angrily complained that Sharia was "in our
food" in the form of halal certification. "It's hidden inside the
cheese packet - you can't see it until you open it!"
The rally became headline news after anti-racist protestors
clashed with Reclaim Australia supporters and the police.
The conspiracy theories vented at the Reclaim Australia rally
followed a months-long social media campaign against halal
certification. Boycotts were mounted against various Australian
and international food corporations because the fees that they
pay for halal certification supposedly fund terrorism and the
plot to take over this proud country - and indeed the world.
CERTIFICATION IS THAT MUSLIMS ARE NOT WELCOME
GAG, AND SO THEY MUST BE VOMITED FROM THE BODY
POLITIC.
CREDIT: CHAMELEONSEYE / SHUTTERSTOCK
SEE ALSO
Related Story: New Religious Intolerance: The Burqa
Debate and the Demands of Equality
BY MARTHA NUSSBAUM 3 OCT 2014
Related Story: The Walking Dead: Fact and Fiction in
the West's anti-Muslim Fantasies
BY YASSIR MORSI 10 APR 2015
Related Story: Religion and the Racial Discrimination
Act: Don't Muslims Also Deserve Protection?
BY MARIAM VEISZADEH 25 FEB 2015
Related Story: Abbott's Betrayal of Australian
Muslims: We are Right to Expect Better
BY MOHAMAD ABDALLA 5 MAR 2015
As National Party MP George Christensen demanded to know
in a blog post titled "Terror in the Tucker Box": "Are groceries in
Australian trolleys funding a push for Sharia law, supporting
jihad groups or even backing terrorist activity?"
Halal certification is the new burqa. And of course, burqas are
the new hijab. And hijabs still make the odd appearance as a seasonal change from the ever-popular application to build a new
mosque in a fair-dinkum Aussie neighbourhood.
All these "issues" - though the fact that they can even be described as "issues" is telling in and of itself - are manifestations of the
same moral panic over signifiers of the Muslim presence in Australia, as well as in other Western societies.
What I find interesting about halal certification is that while burqas, hijabs and mosques are targeted for their visibility, for the ways
in which they change the landscape of Australian society, halal certification is an object of fear because of its near-invisibility. As
the anti-halal brigade points out, Cadbury's halal certification is so well-hidden that you probably wouldn't noticed it until after you'd
purchased your chocolate.
This invisibility supposedly exemplifies the tactic of what is referred to as "stealth jihad" - the sneaky, undercover ways in which
Muslims are infiltrating Australia right under "our" very noses without our even noticing. And what more intimate form of infiltration
could there be than the smuggling of "Muslim" food into the bellies of unsuspecting Australian non-Muslims?
While the anti-halal brigade claims to be addressing an issue of national security, they also describe the act of consuming food that
has been screened by a Muslim organisation as a physically repulsive and disgusting experience from which non-Muslims should
be protected. Just as we do not regard food designated for pets or livestock to be fit for human consumption, food that has been
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2015/04/15/4217025.htm[16/04/2015 12:20:11 PM]
ON THE WIDER WEB
A Most Unlikely Saint
JAMES PARKER, THE ATLANTIC
In his vastness and mobility, G.K.
Chesterton continues to elude definition: He
was a Catholic convert and an oracular man
of letters, a pneumatic cultural presence, an
aphorist with the production rate of a pulp
novelist. Poetry, criticism, fiction, biography,
columns, public debate - the phenomenon
known to early-20th-century newspaper
readers as "GKC" was half cornucopia, half
content mill.
Physician-Assisted Suicide:
Improving the Debate
JOHN KEOWN, ETHIKA POLITIKA
Unfortunately, coverage of this debate by the
mass media is typically one-sided and
emotive. Viewers, listeners, and readers are
subjected to a succession of heart-rending
human interest stories of sick or paralysed
people who want assisted suicide. As the
Why 'Halal Tax' Conspiracy Theories are So Hard to Stomach – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
screened by a Muslim organisation is to be regarded as abhorrent by non-Muslims. We may buy it, cook it, smell it, eat it and digest
it without realising that anything is amiss, but once we are alerted to its true nature, we are sickened by the realisation of what we
have consumed.
The anti-halal campaign illustrates the shortcomings of government-sponsored attempts to enhance the social inclusion of Muslims
living in Australia by "normalising" their presence against the Australian landscape in the expectation that this will lead to greater
levels of community harmony and acceptance.
Substandard English-language and media skills by Muslim spokespeople and community leaders have been seen as a barrier to
social inclusion, hindering Muslims' ability to adequately communicate "the Muslim issue" to "mainstream" audiences. Community
saying goes, "If it bleeds, it leads." These
stories seem designed not only to tug on
public emotion, but to tug it in one direction:
toward legalization. To the extent that
opposing views are aired at all, they are
often caricatured as "religious" - despite the
fact that legalization has long been opposed
by secular bodies like the World Medical
Association.
organisations have invested in media training for spokespeople and religious leaders, in some cases with the help of government
funding. However, these presentable "mainstream Muslims" are regarded by hardcore anti-Muslim racists as far more dangerous
than the unassimilated "misfit Muslims" because of their enhanced ability to infiltrate Australian society in order to undermine it from
within.
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The claim of the anti-halal brigade is that their concern does not extend to kosher food, since Jews do not pose the same level of
threat as Muslims. However, the scare-mongering against halal certification follows a precedent set by antisemitic scaremongering
A former inmate has
about kosher certification (or the "Jewish tax," as white supremacists refer to it). Housewives are urged to purge their pantries of
any products bearing the tiny "K," the insignia of the rabbinical council which imposes the certification scheme - described by one
navigating a cigarette
revealed prisoners are
ban by smoking nicotine patches mixed
notorious leaflet as the "Kosher Nostra Scam."
As Martha Nussbaum and others have pointed out, Jews have long occupied the place of the abhorrent "hidden enemy" within
Western societies, all the more foul and disgusting for their ability to conceal themselves. The campaign against halal certification
is just one of the ways in which racism against Muslims has increasingly come to resemble historic patterns of racism against
with tea leaves.
More - ABC News
Jews.
For most Muslims living in Australia, maintaining a halal diet simply means abstaining from forbidden items such as pork and
alcohol rather than scanning every item in our grocery carts for the halal certification stamp.
Yet the campaign against halal certification impacts on our lives, too. Its message is that, however discrete our presence, however
well-integrated we may believe ourselves to be, we are not welcome here. The anti-Muslim racists behind the campaign want us to
know that our absorption into Australian society makes them gag. We must be rejected, spat out, vomited from the body politic. In
other words, purged.
TWITTER
Follow @abcreligion
Latest Tweet
On @RadioNational at 11:30am, we're
discussing 'conscientious objection' and
the moral limits of conscience:
http://ab.co/1ywIkAS
Shakira Hussein is the McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies in the Asia
Institute at the University of Melbourne.
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BUCKEROOSTER : 15 Apr 2015 10:46:41pm
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Is there any truth to the report that sheik in WA who headed up a Halal certification unit was arrested recently with $8 million of Ice,
illegal firearms and a large amount of cash?
Why cant the Aus government absolutley reassure us that the proceeds from Halal certification do not end up in the wrong places?
HOW DOES THIS SITE
Where does this money go?
WORK?
Why does Cadbury hide the logo inside its packaging?
Why isnt the logo displaye in the same size text as the makers name?
This site is where you will find ABC stories,
There have been calls from some in the muslim community for the introduction of Sharia law, why shouldnt we be afraid of it?
interviews and videos on the subject of
What is hidden is frightening and that is the problem. If islamic communities are all open and upfront, they can prove that they are
Religion & Ethics. As you browse through
not a threat to our Aus culture and way of life.
the site, the links you follow will take you to
stories as they appeared in their original
Reply
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context, whether from ABC News, a TV
program or a radio interview. Please enjoy.
DONGWOO : 15 Apr 2015 10:07:00pm
Dear Shakira Hussein,
1. In my opinion, you need to lend a more charitable ear to your interlocutors’ opinion.
When you use the word “racists” to describe the people who think differently from you, you appear to be unwilling to discuss
anything with your discussion partners. You are more interested in denouncing them, without bothering to try to understand them.
2. I find that your judgment is baffling. You assert that the anti-halal campaign means that the Muslims are not welcomed.
Isn’t it the case that many Muslims were willing to come to the country even when the halal mark was not visible? Please do not
forget that these are the very people who have welcomed the Muslims before the halal mark appears on their beloved brands.
When no one could see halal mark in Coles, many Muslims were willing to come to Australia because they knew they would have
been welcomed. These good Australians, whom you call racists, understand that, by requiring the halal mark on their food, the
foreigners are demanding to change the way they eat and the way they live.
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2015/04/15/4217025.htm[16/04/2015 12:20:11 PM]
Why 'Halal Tax' Conspiracy Theories are So Hard to Stomach – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Since when has halal certificate become a litmus test to judge the hospitality of the Australian?
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IAN KILMINSTER : 15 Apr 2015 9:35:17pm
I am sorry Shakira interprets opposition to Halal certification as racism.
For me racism doesn't come into it.
I ask that companies be honest is they are are Halal certified & are paying for the privilege. Correct me if I am wrong, but is not this
money mostly being used to spread Islam?
I would love these same companies to put the equivalent amount into the spread of my faith, Christianity.
Blessings
Ian
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http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2015/04/15/4217025.htm[16/04/2015 12:20:11 PM]