This week I received an email with a question.  Apparently Cadbury has gone ‘Halal’.  What that means is that a Muslim Cleric comes into the Cadbury factory and prays over the products and the production process in the name of Allah.  The food is then labelled as ‘Halal Certified’ which makes it okay for Muslims to eat.  A similar practice is carried out by Jews and their special food is then declared ‘kosher’ – i.e. suitable for Jews to eat.

The dilemma that my enquirer faced is whether it is okay to eat food that has been devoted to idols.  The assumption is that Islam is a false religion and Allah a false god (idol).  The concern is based on Scripture in the sense that the first Council of the Church in Jerusalem cautioned Christians to abstain from food sacrificed to idols (Acts 15).  A careful search of your pantry will most likely reveal that you have some ‘Halal Certified’ food at home and that you have unwittingly been eating it.  So the question is: Should you feel guilty?  And: Should you look for alternatives?

There are a couple of things we ought to consider.  Paul deals with this matter in 1Corinthians 8.  When the Corinthian Christian went to the butcher chances were that the meat she bought would have been dedicated to an idol.  Paul mentions some Christians regarding it as defiled food and refusing to eat it.  He points out that it’s not a problem for him (because an idol is a nothing) except that if his eating causes offence to others then he will voluntarily abstain.  Paul realised that some folk who had recently come out of idolatry might be particularly sensitive to this matter.  Basically then Paul would seem to have no problems eating ‘Halal’ food unless it became a problem for his dinner guest.

We could add that trying to make sure we eat food that is totally free from any idolatrous connections would be a big ask.  It’s possible that the coffee you drink was harvested on a plantation where the owners were animists who sacrificed a chicken to the gods before the harvest began.  We as Christians should not allow our Christian freedom to be constrained in this way because we know that Jesus is really the one who is Lord of all of life.

There is however another dimension to this ‘halal certified’ food.  Companies pay a fee for the privilege of having a Muslim Cleric attend their factory and authorise the halal certification.  The question is: where does the money go?  That has raised a whole new line of concern.  There has been an organised effort among some people to boycott halal products.  They argue that the fees for this go to a religion that is determined to overthrow western society and Christianity.

Such comments are rather inflammatory and to suggest that the halal certification process supports terrorism could be quite unfair.  At the same time there is some valid concern here.  The Jewish organisation that certifies Jewish food as ‘kosher’ is open to public scrutiny so that everyone knows where the money from certification fees goes.  Perhaps instead of organising a boycott the Muslim organisation should be urged to be similarly transparent.

Meantime I’m happy to help you out.  If you really can’t eat the halal chocolates in your cupboard but don’t want to waste them then I’m happy for you to put them in my pigeonhole here at church :-)

John Westendorp