Recently I wrote a blog about Halal Certification and how Christians should respond. Click here to read that Blog
I received a variety of responses, the negative ones passionately telling me I had missed the point of Halal outrage. People were amazed that I would dare eat a Flake Chocolate as a Christian due to the fact they are Halal Certified and therefore I am directly funding terrorism.
Made me think!
Made me read lots.
I read arguments and articles on both sides of the debate.
I have to say the articles I read claiming evidence that Halal Money funds terrorists were exceptionally light on any level of evidence and in my view lack any substantial credibility. And I will admit, I am no expert on the whole Halal/Terrorism issue so I was keen to see both sides of the debate.
Here are three examples.
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2014/09/02/halal-certification-follow-the-money/
https://www.pickeringpost.com/story/shocking-proof-halal-fees-go-to-syria/4062
Let me quote out of the third article
It’s a safe bet to assume Australian Muslims are not assisting the Kurdish Peshmergas or the Yazidis, but instead elements of the murderous Islamic State.
pickeringpost.com has been told this charity is nothing more than a front to disguise where large sums of money, collected from the halal certification scam and receipts from major drug syndicates, finish up.
My thought from that article is that there are lots of accusations and an anonymous person cited as ‘evidence’. I don’t want a ‘safe bet’. I want hard evidence.
So then I looked at the arguments against Halal Certification funding terrorism.
Quoting from sources I will post in the Bio.
A spokesman for the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) – the government body that monitors money laundering and terrorism – told Fact Check that it had no information to indicate there are links to terrorism financing from halal certification fees.
The Australian Crime Commission issued a statement in November 2014 saying its taskforce with AUSTRAC and the AFP had identified links between organised crime and terrorism funding.
“However, the Australian Crime Commission is not aware of any direct links between the legitimate halal certification industry and money laundering or the financing of terrorist groups,” said the commission’s chief executive Chris Dawson.
Next Quote
Financing terrorism is an offence under the federal Criminal Code with a penalty of life imprisonment.
According to the federal Attorney-General’s Department a person can be convicted of financing terrorism if they “donate to a charity and are aware there is a substantial risk that the donation will be used for terrorism purposes”.
Financing of terrorism by Australian companies and individuals is also controlled under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act and monitored by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC).
The Act forces regulated businesses, including banks, money transfer agencies, and law and accounting practices to enrol with AUSTRAC and identify customers, monitor transactions and help identify terrorism financing risks. All international financial transactions, no matter how small, are tracked.
AUSTRAC received 91 million reports from regulated entities and partner agencies in 2013-14, an average of 350,524 reports every business day.
They received 118 suspicious matter reports related to financing of terrorism.
Next Quote
Parliamentary inquiry finds no link between halal certification and terrorism and food prices increases
DOES HALAL FUND TERRORISM?
In its report, which was published in parliament this week, the committee found the practice of halal certification was misunderstood and the industry was under-regulated. This compromised the integrity of the system and allowed “the proliferation of questionable conduct by certifiers of questionable expertise and intent”, the report stated.
But the inquiry also found no links between halal certification and terrorist activity by extremists.
The committee, which received more than 1450 submissions, said while the inquiry was set up to investigate all food certification, the vast majority voiced concerns about, and opposition to, halal food certification.
Next quote
We do not in any way endorse or support or want to be associated with terrorism.
Muhammad Khan, CEO Halal Australia
Next Quote (This particular article basically concluded that whilst no evidence has been found of links between Halal Certification and Terrorism, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist….they are just well hidden. Have a read)
THE limitations of our security and crime authorities were on public show the past week when they admitted they’ve found no direct links between halal certification and terrorism.
There’s a difference between ‘found’ no evidence – and ruling it out.
The authorities haven’t rule out the links, because they can’t. They are limited by lack of jurisdiction between countries without powers to investigate overseas bank accounts.
Plenty of crimes are committed every day, which go unsolved. Plenty of crooks have walked from the courts because of a lack of evidence.
That doesn’t mean crimes are not committed. It means the crooks have cleverly covered their tracks – using methods to avoid detection.
Both the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) and Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), Australia’s anti-money laundering intelligence agency, gave evidence at the public hearing on Thursday.
National manager of compliance at AUSTRAC Angela Jamieson told the inquiry:
“Of the information identified from this monitoring of reported financial transactions, none of these have been assessed as related to funding of terrorism with regard to halal certification fees.”
Halal certifiers do not directly donate money to ISIS, Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood (all proscribed terrorist organisations globally), which is why the authorities use the considered terminology, ‘no direct link’. But links there are. A giant web of global links out of the reach of our authorites.
Certifiers donate to Islamic charities publicly known to have direct links to terrorist organisations. These links have been found all around the world.
It’s a stretch to imagine the same charities’ Australian affiliates are the only squeaky clean branches, or funds raised from the Australian charities’ branches are isolated from the rest of the dirty pool.
Once those charities move the funds offshore it’s impossible for AUSTRAC and the ACC to track the money.
The funds are moved from one account to another to find their way to the intended end recipient, out of the limited reach of Australian authorities.
Don’t believe me?
The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has found that smaller, local, community-based charities, especially informal ethnic and faith-based charities (i.e. Islamic) often fall outside the watchful regulatory eye of our government agencies and are especially likely to be used for financing terrorism.
AIC says terror funding is undertaken by exploiting legitimate charities where funds raised for charitable purposes are diverted to individuals or groups associated with terrorism.
Sham charities are common.
In a number of cases, the charity collects funds intended for humanitarian aid or welfare relief, but a percentage is specifically intended for the financing of terrorists.
Many of the implicated charities form part of a complex web, moving funds between multiple accounts held by various charities, sister charities, companies (both legitimate and fictitious) and individuals.
Multiple conduits are used in the country of money origin and transferred across different jurisdictions, before eventually being transmitted to the intended recipient(s) – terrorists.
Funds are first deposited into the bank accounts of charities, or of individuals associated with charities, before being transferred, using cash deposits, wire transfers or other remittance schemes.
End Quotes.
Anyway that is just a few of the articles I read. I didn’t post them all here as it would become too long for a blog article. So here is my conclusion.
Halal Certification may be funding terrorism. But as far as the Government and our anti Terrorism agencies and the Australian Federal Police are concerned, there is no evidence that that is the case at this stage. I am not saying it does or it doesn’t. I am just looking for the evidence that clearly those with the passion and conviction that terrorism is being funded have. I just couldn’t find it.
In my reading I really only came across articles that seriously lacked any credibility in providing evidence of the claims they were making that Halal Certification funds terrorists.
So how about we all calm down.
I was disappointed by the reaction of some people on social media and even some who know me personally, attacking me for funding terrorism….which I have to say is a heinous accusation to make toward me. Particularly in light of the fact that there doesn’t seem to be hard evidence.
I am not a fan of Halal certification nor the push of Islam into Australia. I am a fan of not being irrationally freaked out. Islam is not a religion of peace as Muslims would have us believe. But the furore of Halal Certification and its funding terrorism, seems to me to be a rumour that was started and now Christians take it as Gospel. And now use it to slander each other.
I am open to be proved wrong and I invite people to post links in the comments section of this blog. One thing I would ask. If you post a link, it has to be a credible article involving the Australian experience. Posting some quote from Pauline Hanson for example doesn’t count as a credible article showing terrorist links.
Anyway, that’s what I think,
You may be interesting in some of my other Islam orientated Blogs:-
- How Islam Treats Women – Reviewing Four Books on This Topic.
- Honour Killings–Are they rooted in Islam?
- My Sermon Notes on Islam – Essential Basic Information
- And Now The Courts of Australia Silently Scream Allahu Akbar
Peter Pilt
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Here are the articles I have quoted from.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/fact-check-does-halal-certification-fund-terrorism/6383238
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/fact-file-halal-certification-and-food-exports/6383246
http://zanettisview.com/story/halal-certification-and-terrorism-links/395
Categories: Answers to Questions, Australian, Islam, Topics to wrestle with
peterpilt 
Whether Halal Certification funds terrorism or not is a moot point. The main point, in my opinion, is that companies and thereby, consumers, are forced to pay a fee which panders to Islam. It is another example of the creeping Islamification of the West and one in which we can show our displeasure by refusing to buy such products. There is evidence, which I’ve read, which points to the enrichment of those persuading companies to bow to them in this matter.
Yep agree Alan. Islam is very dangerous. And it’s push into Australia is deeply concerning. However the topic at hand is does Halal Cerification fund terrorism and there is simply no evidence. But many Christians believe it to be so and act irrationally over it. I am merely pushing back on something for which there is no clear evidence. It may be happening. I just can’t find evidence. But everyone rages.
“If you post a link, it has to be a credible article involving the Australian experience”
and earlier you quote someone saying “There’s a difference between ‘found’ no evidence – and ruling it out”.
Now it is perhaps good that you say “I want hard evidence”, and I personally haven’t any, and I’m sure that terrorists are not going to make their sources of funding easy to find, so I’ll throw something else into the mix from Lev 5:17:
“If a person sins and violates any of the Lord’s commandments which must not be violated (although he did not know it at the time, but later realizes he is guilty), then he will bear his punishment for iniquity”
This is a hard one and won’t be popular with (some) Christians, but if something’s wrong then it’s wrong whether one knows it or not and God will duly punish that person for having done it
So you you don’t have evidence that Hala funds terrorism either?
No Peter I personally don’t have any evidence that Halal funds terrorism, and I’m neither in the position nor have the skills to “follow the money trail”.
But what about our financial footprint?
See even though Paul says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, people of flesh and blood are out there being used by Satan to try destroy us, the Church of the Living God.
Now when I have tax taken from me I know that it goes into a pool from which murderers are paid to murder unborn children. As it’s taken from me all I can do it try to minimise the amount by getting some back. With Halal it’s different as it’s my choice to buy food from companies who pass some of the money I pay onto someone whose religion openly denies our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and whose intent is to subject us to itself.
Is buying Halal Certified products indirectly supporting terrorism? According to you there’s no proof. But does buying Halal Certified products finance enemies of the Cross? Definitely. And at the moment we can to some extent avoid it.
Anyway:
I found this interesting statement from http://islamic-laws.com/eatinghabbit.htm
“According to a tradition from Hazrat Abdullah (Abdullah bin Abbas), one should say ‘Alhamdolillah’ while having food. According to a tradition from Amir-ul-Momineen Hazrat Ali (a.s.), a man who takes the name of Allah before starting his food and praises Allah after he ends the meal, then he will not be questioned about his food on the Day of Judgement”.
In other words the idea that a Muslim HAS TO HAVE proof that something is Halal before they can eat it is incorrect and so Halal Certification is a rip-off.
I also found this interesting question from http://ausprayernet.org.au/feature/feature_articles_34.php
“However, food cannot be separated from its context. Having rejected Jewish law, should we as Christians now embrace Islamic law? The halal meat industry is part of a process of Islamisation in which some Muslims are seeking to impose the legal requirements of Islam, not just on their own people, but also on the rest of society. Should we, as Christians, or for that matter other non-Muslims, submit to the diktat of Islamic law now being perpetuated by the British meat industry and through supermarket chains? In eating halal meat, it can be argued that Christians and other non-Muslims are now furthering the process of dawa (Islamic mission), the Islamisation of society, and the imposition of Islamic law.”
[elsewhere the article says “In both Acts 15 and Revelation 2 restrictions are placed on eating meat that has been offered to idols and churches are rebuked for allowing such practices to be encouraged” those Scriptures being “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication” (Acts 15) and “But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality” (Rev 2)].
The prudent thing to do under the circumstances is to err on the side of causion…AND NOT BUY HALAL! By the way the word “halal” in hungarian means “death”!
If nothing else “halal money” is used to spread Islam! I as a none muslim will do NOTHING to aid the spread of ISLAM a violent ideology!