There is a perceptions mismatch about the concept of 'halal' between non-Muslims and Muslims, a study by UK-based Ethnic Focus has found. At the third unified session at the World Halal Summit (WHS) 2015 in Malaysia Dr Saber Khan, Managing Director, Ethnic Focus, said that non-Muslims and Muslims have completely different outlooks.
The survey of the attitudes of 7,000 non-Muslims and Muslims across 14 countries has found that 66% of non-Muslims have a negative reaction to the word 'halal' whereas 95% of Muslims have a positive reaction, Dr Saber said. Also, 93% of non-Muslims felt that their views of halal products were affected by news stories such as Charlie Hebdo or ISIS, while only 1% of Muslims were similarly affected.
“Since halal is becoming a global phenomenon, we need to be aware of what the world thinks of Halal now. With ISIS and so on being a presence in the media, this is needed more than ever before,” said Dr Saber.
On that note, a huge majority of non-Muslims strongly felt that the media is not at all biased against Islam and 79% of them felt that there was a connection between buying halal food and terrorism — while Muslims felt that these stories were strongly biased, and none felt that halal was linked with terrorism. Sixty-eight percent of non-Muslims felt that halal is anti-Western, while 93% of Muslims disagree.
As Internet penetration worldwide increases, the question “Would you buy Halal products online?” was posed to respondents. Only 2% of non-Muslims felt that they would, while 21% of Muslims would buy online. As for animal welfare, 70% of non-Muslims say that halal slaughtering is against animal welfare, with the remainder saying they don’t actually know. On the other hand, 91% of Muslims thought it preserved animal welfare.
“Polite society may not articulate all this, but the study shows that they still feel it,” said Dr Saber.
Rushdi Siddiqui, CEO of Zilzar Technology of Malaysia suggested that these perceptions are affected by negative media coverage which calls on an emotional connection.
“Perhaps there is a way we can focus more on the ethics of halal and Islam,” said Rushdi. “For example, on the upstream, explaining the humane aspects, in the midstream, that there are health benefits to humans when the blood is drained from the animal and so on. We need to become part of the conversation, and be proactive and have a role in the media.”
Moderator Abdalhamid Evans, Founder of HalalFocus and World Halal Summit Conference Director gave a similar example, like how packaging of organic products tells a story of how it is produced and its benefits, and perhaps this method can be used for halal products.
Navid Akhtar, CEO of UK company Alchemiya Media said there is much opportunity to realign perceptions. "There used to be only one room for one voice, like the BBC. Now there are alternative media. People need to see the celebration of our concepts,” he said.
All agreed that there is a massive market opportunity with over 400 million Muslims that are outside the Muslim world who are under 30. With rising per capita income, Internet penetration, smartphones and so on, these will be the customers in the next few decades, and they will be the ones who have the potential to change the narrative.
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