Welcome home, FRiend. Missed you.
Thanks! Had a bit of burnout going and got through it. Am back with less time sitting at the computer and more time annoying my family, trying recipes and giving away things we haven't used for far too long.
Crowdfunding Terrorism Through Islamic Halal Food Certifications
Snip:
Even if a small percentage of imams who certify products as being halal are passing the profits on to terrorist organizations, it potentially represents a large amount of money. Malaysian studies have valued the worldwide halal food industry as between $600 billion to $2.1 trillion. Halal certifications are usually paid by food companies at set annual rates. Considering all the firms worldwide that pay such fees to imam halal certifiers, this amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars. Some halal certifiers have become quite wealthy from the halal certification scheme. Halal certifiers have also been quite secretive about who receives donations, with some admitting only that the funds go to Islamic madrassa schools and mosques. However, many of these madrassas and mosques are linked to the Wahhabis.
Some Muslims have opined that halal certification is nothing more than a money-making scam, with the most ridiculous aspect being halal certification for dog food. It is ironic that the same imams who declare dogs to be «unclean» animals also willingly charge pet food manufacturers to certify food for the «unclean» beasts to be halal. Other Muslims have conceded that the halal certification scheme has become as financially corrupt as segments of the Jewish kosher product certification system. South African Muslim authorities have pointed out, to the dismay of the halal certification industry, that the Koran forbids imams from charging money to certify food as halal. Yet, the practice continues with fees charged for halal «stamps» on food, in some cases, indirectly propping up various jihadist groups with large sums of ready cash.