I’m the last person to buy into the hysteria around Halal food products. I’m not a Muslim so I don’t seek out Halal food, but nor am I afraid of it. You’d think by some of the commentary around Halal certification that you run the risk of “catching Islam” if you eat Halal food. Nor do I buy into the conspiracy theories about Halal certification funding terrorism.

The reality is, food companies realise that there is a growing Muslim community in Australia and our closest neighbour has the largest Muslim population in the World. Any business would be mad to ignore those markets and deny themselves that revenue. Especially given the current economic climate.

However, I’m also of the belief that a company has the right NOT to Halal certify its products. We know there’s enough people out there that are afraid of Halal food that they represent a genuine niche market.

That’s why I find the decision by Ad Standards to label a sign on a butcher shop in Adelaide, discriminatory.

The sign said “not Halal certified”. Apparently the Ad Standards panel deemed the sign offensive and that it suggested “Islamic dietary practices are not Australian”. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the complainant wasn’t even a Muslim but some do-gooder trying to stir up trouble.

The owner of the shop says it was in response to several enquires as to whether their meat was Halal. I’m calling BS on that too. But if anyone was indeed offended by the sign, they need a nice warm cup of harden up.

We all need to take a chill pill as the kids say and start worrying about important stuff, like how we’re going to survive this drought.

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