Maleny Dairies has collected a rather dubious gathering of new “friends” since it announced it could not be bothered getting a halal certification for its products.
A disreputable bunch of Islamophobes and hate groups have gathered around the Queensland-based company in some twisted belief that the fortunes of the company are going to improve by their association with it.
With “friends” like these
To clarify a couple of misconceptions – firstly cows’ milk itself does not require halal certification (provided it does not contain additives) in order for Muslims to be able to consume it.
Secondly dairy products such as yogurts, custards, processed cheeses and desserts may require certification if they contain additives to ensure that additives and preservatives are not derived from either non-halal animal sources such as pigs or which contain alcohol or its by-products.
Such a shame that Maleny Dairies will not be able to compete against giants like Parmalat or Dairy Farmers in the wider Queensland and Australian marketplace, nor will they be able to access much of the hugely lucrative Asia Pacific market where millions of Muslims live and which is increasingly demanding Australian dairy produce.
Then again they can always sell their stuff to the likes of some of these commenters
Or these charmers.
you said it... 
Well here’s the big chance for that ant-sharia crowd to prove something. If all Australians objct to halal certification, then this should become the most popular milk company in Australia in short time. They’ve said that most Australians object to halal certification, but now there’s a company that has stated they will not have certification, you’ve got the perfect test to prove that.
Of course, if this company continues as it is, not rising in sales, nor dropping, then it will show the majority of Australians do not care about halal certification at all.
And if sales drop, then it will just show the anti-halal movement is toxic, and everything they touch turn to shit.
Live in Au, live like Au. Like it another way, go another place.
Please define how “Au” people live.
Well as “Au” is the symbol for Gold, people who live in Gold have a substantial income, with good ability to send electronic signals and messages. But they do find it difficult to breath.
Au? Chemical symbol for gold? Wrongly capitalised abbreiv for Astronomical Unit? What? I do believe the short slang form of Australia is Oz, “mate”!
If you love Au(stralia) so much why are you trying to change/intimidate an Australian company into doing something they wouldn’t have to have done?
Muslims are rightly outraged whenever a claim such as “All muslims are terrorists” are made as it paints an entire group with the same brush. Why then, do you find it acceptable, to paint all those opposed to Halal Certification in the same way? In essence, your article makes you out to be the exact thing you oppose.
Why should milk, a product which is already Halal, be required to pay a fee for something it already is? If you’re unable to answer that then congratulations, you are finally starting to see why people are so upset. As you implied yourself, a company must have halal certification if it’s to compete. Well I think that’s wrong, if the Islamic community insist that an already Halal product be certified, then at the very least they should be the ones paying for it.
Who is insisting?
“Why then, do you find it acceptable, to paint all those opposed to Halal Certification in the same way? ”
Because they’re strangely quiet about Kosher certification, which is virtually identical apart from the religion involved being different.
“Why should milk, a product which is already Halal, be required to pay a fee for something it already is?”
Firstly, no company has to pay for halal certification. Many choose to, so to improve access from some members of the community who may otherwise not purchase their product, but this is still a choice.
Secondly, as this article states, not all milk is halal, depending on what additives are used. The process of having an unbiased representative check and confirm that milk is halal is not a free service. The exact same thing occurs with Kosher certification.
“As you implied yourself, a company must have halal certification if it’s to compete”
That’s capitalism my friend. If you want to compete you need to open access to as many potential customers as possible. However, if the cost of requesting halal certification is not worth the profits received, then a company is free to choose not to pay for this-as this company has done. If enough people support them, they will survive this decision. Really, the option to you is clear.
“Well I think that’s wrong, if the Islamic community insist that an already Halal product be certified, then at the very least they should be the ones paying for it.”
Yeah, capitalism isn’t fair. But that’s the system we’re in. If you want to overhaul our economic model, all the best to you. When I was younger I would have probably joined in.
But this about your request for a second. You think Muslims who want halal certified products should have to pay for the certification. In what world do you think Muslims aren’t already doing this?
I mean, if a Muslim wants to buy a halal certified product, they purchase it, right? The money they spend goes, in part, to paying for the certification process. Correct? What are you wanting more? Are you expecting that all Muslims should fund certification for a company whose products they are not actually purchasing? How on earth would that even work?
I mean, I like small cars. If there is a company that only sells big cars, I’m not going to be involved with them. They are free to only sell big cars, and I am free to shop elsewhere. All is fair, and everyone has freely made a choice.
In your situation, you think it should be fair for the car company to demand I pay for the cost of making small cars, even if I never intend to purchase a car from them, because otherwise they will not make a profit from me. See how ridiculous that sounds?
Why should people who say that they shouldn’t be forced into doing something they don’t want and then force others to do their bidding not be called hypocrites? They shouldn’t. You don’t want to consume halal products don’t. You are the oppressor here, these companies are making financial decisions for their benefit.
WTF is a a “pedda stool”?! Illiterate mouthbreathers, the lot of them.
“pedda stools”
The “stools” are the islamophobes whose minds are full of, well what the word ‘stools’ suggests – in the non-furniture sense of the word.
My issue is with Maleny Dairies’ apparent tolerance, if not passive acceptance, for the posted opinions of bigots and abusive Islam haters on their Facebook page. A simple disclaimer disassociating themselves from such abusive sentiments (predictably common when this topic is discussed) could have been made. Neither ‘suzie’ nor anyone else from Maleny Dairies has bothered to do so.
It’s of course not fair to paint an entire group with the same brush, but to say that all those opposed to Halal certification are being so ‘painted’ is a charge without merit. I can’t see any ‘all anti halalists are Islamophobes’ type declarations in the article. Can you? In fact the article is largely about what sorts of people this specific statement by Maleny Dairies has attracted in support, rather than the reason for the Dairy’s decision.
Having said that, I believe Maleny Dairies’ actual underlying motive for their issued statement can be inferred. And whilst it may be a business decision, it’s not related to product cost. Reading the dairy’s statement, they claim their decision is based on an aversion to increasing their product costs, and preferring instead to pay farmers a fair price. The implication being that paying for halal certification will increase the cost of their products, and prevent them from paying this fair price to farmers. In other words, a simple cost/benefit business decision, where the cost of accreditation does not correspond to a valuable enough increase in revenue for it to be worthwhile.
This is of course disingenuous since, as they themselves state, the actual issuing of their statement was not prompted by customer concerns about either a rise in product costs or the price received by farmers. No-one it seems was worried about the dairy pointlessly increasing their costs of production, or not giving farmers a fair go. Instead, clearly, the statement was issued to assuage and preserve existing or potential customers who object (for whatever reason) to the very principle of halal certification.
Maleny Dairies is of course free to make whatever business decisions, and to certify or not with whomever they like. If their claimed gluten free yoghurts are Coeliac Australia certified, or have some other such accreditation, then presumably they have undertaken that decision bearing the financial benefits and their stated principles about costs and farmers in mind. If Maleny Dairies should feel that they can’t compete without such gluten free certification, then unlike you, I won’t be railing against ‘the gluten free certification industry’, claiming scams, imposed taxes or other such nonsense. I’ll just accept that yoghurt, a product which is already gluten free, does sometimes have unwanted additives in it. And I’ll accept that there’s a potential dollar to be made by those companies able to both bear the cost of accreditation and exploit the market demand.
Last post was directed at Sean.
All this fuss about Halal food just ain’t kosher – to use an old dinkum Aussie slang term that, hmm does have another meaning too! 😉
The fact that they issued that statement means they’re pandering to bigots. If their motives for not pursuing halal certification were totally above-board, they wouldn’t have issued a statement at all.
Ross Hopper, the man who owns Maleny Dairies, also owns a decommissioned howitzer with “bring on the towel heads” written on it’s side. No kidding!
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/gun-and-slogan-start-war-racism-maleny/1127899/
Why am I not surprised at all
So whats stopping these companies still making their products halal certified and only putting it on export labels? It doesn’t actually contain any other ingredients that need to be mentioned. So, technically doesn’t asking these companies to remove their labels only increase the chance of these anti-halal lot eating halal food?
The mindset of the hardcore anti halalist is that buying produce with a halal label
a) means supporting the spread of such labels, and therefore the spread or normalisation of Islam in Australia
b) means money paid for the product is going towards the support of an unspecified cause involving Muslims…therefore it’s most probably terrorism
c) is a step in the Islamisation/Shariasation of Australia – basically another step down the road to the takeover of the country, its public space (including food and supermarket shelves), and eventually its laws, all its most cherished values, its women etc etc
d) supports a rort/tax/extortion because Muslims are self evidently devious, dodgy bastards with a secret plan (see point c), so such a modus operandi of ‘threatening’ businesses for profit fits the profile
I think some companies do only put halal labels on their export products to avoid the hassle of reactions like this, but the anti halalists are wise to it and demanding to know from companies which products are ‘secretly’ certified.
When you’re allergic to any and all things Islamic, any perceived encroachment into any sphere not already designated for unwanted ‘foreigners’ is considered an invasion and a call to arms.
Like +1.
I’m late to comment here, but this post made me so angry at the time that I messaged then on Facebook to let them know. They didn’t care and I felt like the post was written exactly the way they intended – to stir up bigotry. Since then I have stopped purchasing their products (which I used to go out of my way to buy to spport a local business). I’ve also mentioned this to a number of other people who’ve stopped purchasing their products too. A friend just reminded me if it, so I thought I’d do a search. Thanks for your well written option.
I went to their Facebook page to inquire about their non-halal stance, as well as the ute-mounted gun and their recent addition of the Ichthys symbol to their packaging – I don’t think I’ve ever been blocked from a Facebook page so quickly in my life. I’m talking about a matter of seconds.
Fair enough of they don’t want to have their products certified as halal. But why then have a ichthys symbol on the label? Seems they’re picking a fight in a rather immature way.
Can I suggest,that many people oppose the crazy, religious practises, like kosher or halal for the same reasons, that they oppose the introduction of misogynistic concepts of sharia laws. Personally as much as I am astounded that there are still people in the 21st century believing in fairy tales, gruesome as they might be, I totally agree with freedom of religion BUT with the proviso of it being practiced within the confines of one’s home or place of worship.
I might be wrong but there is a special, halal, way of killing animals, which is practiced in Australia as an exception to the more “humane” way. Is it slitting the throat of an animal while facing the direction of Mecca and kneeling? Could someone please elucidate on this topic?
If there is no objection to that description, then I would propose to call this act a simple act of barbarism allowed to be practiced on primitive, religious grounds.
If there was another religion demanding the practice of gouging left eye before slaughter and facing it towards heaven to see the approval of The Grand Master, would that practice be also acceptable on the grounds of religious freedom???
Then…what is the difference?
Where do you get the notion that eye-gouging a live animal is part of halal slaughter? Sounds like something from Breitfart.
Please educate yourself on halal and shechita (kosher)before commenting.
So what do you think about Seventh Day Adventists and Hindus who have different dietary requirements.
Or vegetarians and vegans for that matter?
Or atheists who will cheerfully consume meals in all modes?
Did you notice the “IF” preceding the hypothetical religion?
The point I was trying to make, is the nonsensical religious requirements regarding many aspects of life. Here, specifically, food preparation. A propos atheists or vegetarians, they do not slit animals’ throats while facing certain direction etc
Another point I was making related to the fact, that if certain actions weren’t originating from religions, then the civilised societies would never allow them to occur,