The paint tin has a silhouette of a mosque on the label, while the paint company’s brochure has the face of a pig crossed out.

Indonesian company Bernahal uses these images to show its wall paint is halal, or permissible for Muslims, part of a growing range of goods aimed at winning over pious Islamic consumers in a global market estimated to be worth US$2 trillion (S$2.7 trillion) a year.

To emphasise its appeal, Bernahal says the chemicals in its paints are free from lard, which is considered unclean in Islam.

In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, there are many other items touted as halal, such as a computer mouse, headscarves and even shirt buttons.

In Malaysia, there are discussions whether to introduce halal supermarket trolleys that cannot be used by buyers of pork. There is also a recently launched halal Internet browser and halal household detergents.

Some think the frenzy over “halal” products has gone too far and accuse businesses of exploiting pious Muslims who fear touching or eating items deemed unclean, or haram, meaning forbidden.

But others say it is the Muslims who insist on the halal label.

A director at Malaysia’s Islamic Development Department (Jakim), Mr Sirajuddin Suhaimee, told The Straits Times that “the push power of consumers has nudged the industry to get halal certification”.

“People ask for a halal toilet bowl because it comes into contact with humans. Same for plastic bags and packaging that have contact with food,” said Mr Sirajuddin.

Datuk Hooi Lai Lin, chief executive of Ken Rich Corporation, which produces halal personal care products and household detergents, said: “We just want to cater across the board and give comfort to all Muslims.

“Even though our cleaning products are not consumed, a lot are touched by people.”

Lumin Spring International Group produces mineral water that has the Jakim halal logo. “If we tell buyers that our water is Malaysian halal-certified, it sells better,” said company director Philip Ting.

The drive to make more products and services halal has grown in the past three decades as Muslims have become more observant of Islam, as shown by the growing number of Muslim women who wear the tudung or headscarf around the world.

“It’s not a choice. We must use halal goods,” Perak state’s mufti, Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria, told The Straits Times.

But a worry is that Muslims are buying these products simply because of the halal stamp, without asking whether a can of paint, a computer mouse, a bottle of water or that colourful headscarf needs the label in the first place.

“Muslims are required to eat halal, but the problem is when people practise religion beyond the nature of Islam itself,” Mr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, Perlis state’s mufti, told The Straits Times.

“Traders are commercialising religion and halal by promoting what Muslims should use and consume,” he added.

Such commercial uses of the label have spurred a group of auditors, including Muslim Singaporeans, to form a new association to help governments certify manufacturers using halal guidelines and standard practices.

The International Association of Halal Auditors, which will be registered in Indonesia by the end of this year, will possibly be the first halal body in the world to be led by professionals, said Mr Imran Musa, 51, one of the main initiators.

The Singaporean is the chief executive of Ark Incorporation, a Singapore company that has audited 40 companies worldwide for halal compliance since 2011.

Among the group’s aims is to quash “halal extremism” and set the record straight on what is “genuinely halal and good”, Mr Imran told The Straits Times.

“Having unnecessarily stricter rules towards halal will lead to halal extremism. Who would have thought of halal paint, halal tudung and halal condoms?” he said.

“Halal extremism is slowly creeping in as some clerics impart their own judgment, hence making halal more stringent.”

Mr Imran has so far gathered 50 auditors from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, New Zealand, Germany, Italy and Britain to join the association.

He said the proposed group has received the backing of Indonesia’s top Islamic authority, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), which is also the halal certification body in the country.

Halal certification currently has no universally accepted standard, with different countries imposing varying interpretations of the Islamic rules for what is permissible.

Some go beyond what the religion requires, in what is described by Mr Asri as being “halal crazy”.

To add to the headache, halal approvals issued previously for products can be reversed depending on circumstances, MUI’s deputy secretary-general, Tengku Zulkarnain Rafiuddin, told The Straits Times.

For instance, kopi luwak, made from coffee beans which are ingested and excreted by civets, is halal in Indonesia as the waste matter can be washed away. But if the coffee beans break up in the animals’ bodies before they are expelled, the beans become haram, he said.

Kopi luwak is halal in Singapore. But it is haram – not permissible for Muslim consumption – in Malaysia.

Manufacturers say stricter requirements translate into more time, money and paperwork which, in turn, drive up costs of goods.

Typically, a company can take anything from two to five months and spend US$4,000 to US$67,000 to get their products halal-certified in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, officials say.

Mr Martin Wissler, sales international manager for Germany-based Martin Braun group, which exports pastry and baking ingredients, said he hopes to deal with a single body with clear guidelines.

He told The Straits Times: “This is actually what we are looking for as a manufacturer… We wouldn’t mind paying for such good services provided we can save a lot of time.”

This article was first published on June 14, 2016.
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TORONTO/MANILA – The Philippines on Tuesday confirmed the execution of a Canadian who had been held hostage by the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Islamist militant group on a remote southern island with three other people since September 2015.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Toronto on Monday that it appeared the second execution of a Canadian hostage by Abu Sayyaf in recent months had taken place. “We strongly condemn the brutal and senseless murder of Mr. Robert Hall, a Canadian national, after being held captive by the Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu for the past nine months,”Philippines President Benigno Aquino said in a statement.

A Philippines military spokesman had said earlier a severed head had been found near a Catholic cathedral on a remote southern island late on Monday. No identification had been made yet.

Hall was taken captive by the militants with three others from an upscale resort on Samal island, hundreds of miles east of Jolo. Another Canadian who was held captive, former mining executive John Ridsdel, was executed by the group in April.

A Norwegian man and a Filipina are still being held.

Trudeau told reporters that “Canada holds the terrorist group who took Mr. Hall hostage fully responsible for this cold-blooded and senseless murder”.

The prime minister said the Sunday attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and the killing of Hall “serve as devastating reminders for all of us, the vicious acts of hatred and violence cannot be tolerated in any form”.

Abu Sayyaf, based in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines, is known for kidnapping, beheadings and extortion.

It initially demanded one billion pesos (S$29.3 million) each for the detainees, but it lowered the ransom to 300 million pesos each early this year.

Preliminary intelligence reports in the Philippines indicated Hall had been beheaded 10 minutes after the 3 p.m. deadline in the mountains outside Jolo’s Patikul town.

Philippine media had already quoted Abu Raami, a spokesman for Abu Sayyaf, confirming the execution.

Security is precarious in the southern Philippines despite a 2014 peace pact between the government and the largest Muslim rebel group that ended 45 years of conflict.

Manila – Philippine authorities on Tuesday confirmed that Muslim extremist guerrillas had beheaded a second Canadian hostage, as they defended their inability to save him despite months of pursuit.

“We strongly condemn the brutal and senseless murder of Mr. Robert Hall, a Canadian national, after being held captive by the Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu for the past nine months,” presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma said in a statement.

A military statement also confirmed that a severed head, believed to be Hall’s, was found near the Jolo island cathedral Monday night.

“The discovery confirmed the brutal beheading by the evil, criminal ASG (Abu Sayyaf group) of a kidnap victim,” the statement added.

Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that his government has “every reason to believe” that Hall had been killed by the Abu Sayyaf, the second Canadian captive to be slain this year.

Members of the notorious kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf gang had said they would murder Hall if they did not receive 300 million pesos ($6.5 million) ransom by Monday afternoon.

Hall was among four people abducted in September last year from aboard yachts at a tourist resort on Samal island in the southern Philippines.

Another Canadian kidnapped at the same time, John Ridsdel, was beheaded in April after a similar ransom demand of 300 million pesos was not paid.

The fates of the two other people abducted at the Samal resort – Hall’s Filipina girlfriend Marites Flor and Norwegian resort manager Kjartan Sekkingstad – were not known.

Italian hostage released by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

The Star/ANN, AFP

The beheadings have taken place despite the heavy deployment of military and police forces to locate them in the strife-torn island of Jolo, the largest island in the Muslim-populated archipelago of Sulu, about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from Manila.

Major Filemon Tan, spokesman of military forces in the south, said Tuesday that the kidnappers were evading military pursuers with the help of the impoverished Muslim residents of the island.

“They have relatives in the community. They are the ones that give them a warning when there are soldiers in the area,” he told radio station DZMM.

He also said the island’s forested, hilly terrain, a broad coastline that allows for swift movement by boat and the kidnappers’ tactic of breaking up into smaller groups, were all hindering pursuit.

“But we are studying this deeply and I can say we are adjusting and it will be a matter of time that we will hit them also,” he added.

Listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation, the Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of Islamic militants that was founded in the early 1990s with money from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.

Its leaders have in recent years declared allegiance to the Islamic State group that holds territory in Iraq and Syria.

JAKARTA – Indonesia plans to put 16 convicts to death after next month’s Muslim Eid holiday, an official said Tuesday, confirming executions were set to resume after a hiatus.

The death row convicts will be executed “immediately after” the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Mohammad Rum, a spokesman for the attorney-general’s office, told AFP, but he did not give a precise date.

Ramadan ends with the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which falls in Indonesia on July 6 and 7.

Rum did not say who would face the firing squad, but Indonesia has been waging a campaign against narcotics and in 2015 executed 14 drug convicts, mostly foreigners, sparking international outrage.

There have been no executions since April last year, with Indonesia saying it was pausing capital punishment to focus on fixing its slowing economy.

“We could not do it earlier because the government was trying to improve our economy, but now we will take some action after Eid,” Rum said.

Rum said the convicts would likely be put to death by firing squad on the prison island of Nusakambangan, off Java, where executions are usually carried out.

There are scores of drug convicts on death row in Indonesia, among them foreigners including Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, who were both pulled from the last round of executions.

British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford is on death row in Bali after she was caught smuggling a huge stash of cocaine into the resort island.

President Joko Widodo declared a war on drugs when he took office in 2014, saying that the country was facing an emergency due to rising narcotics use and traffickers should be severely punished.

There were two rounds of executions last year. The second round in April, which saw two Australians, a Brazilian and four Nigerians put to death, caused the most serious diplomatic backlash.

Following the executions of the Australian drug smugglers, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Canberra temporarily recalled its ambassador from Jakarta.