After almost a week of contentious debate and flaring tempers, the National Fatwa Council said yesterday that it would maintain the “halal” status of the two batches of Cadbury chocolate bars containing traces of pig DNA.
As of this decision, the chocolate bars are safe to be consumed by Muslims.
National Fatwa Council committe chairman Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dr Abdul Shukor Husin said the ruling was reached in recognition that a contamination of such trace amounts of porcine DNA falls under the circumstance of umum al-balwa – a situation where unintended impurities are found in a halal envinronment despite best efforts to keep everything clean.
“In the case of ready-made products that had been marketed to consumers and produced through processes using clean and halal ingredients and had been confirmed as halal, but later found it had been contaminated with pig DNA in certain batches only, then the committee had decided that it was categorised as ‘Umum al-Balwa’.
“The ruling on the product is referred to the original ruling, that is, halal for consumption because the contamination occurred beyond the scope of control and difficult to avoid,” The Malaysian Insider reports Dr Abdul Shukor as saying in a statement.
Last Saturday, the Health Ministry announced that two specific batches of Cadbury chocolates being distributed throughout Malaysian retail outlets, for the company’s Dairy Milk Hazelnut and Dairy Milk Roast Almond products, were tainted with trace amounts of porcine, or pig, DNA.
This led to the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) to suspend its halal certification for both batches, and a product recall was issued for all items from the two batches.
Reaction from incensed Malay-Muslim rights groups was vocal and vehement: Jaringan Melayu Malaysia (JMM) initiated proceedings to sue Cadbury Malaysia to the tune of RM100 million for “mistreating” the country’s Muslims; while another loose coalition of Malay-Muslim NGOs, including Perkasa and ISMA, declared a “jihad” on Cadbury for tainting the blood of Muslims with pig DNA, with some calling for the Cadbury factory in Malaysia to be burned down.
Other voices in the Malay-Muslim community called for calm and reason: the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (ABIM) dismissed the call to burn chocolate factories as being extremist and un-Islamic; while former Perlis Mufti Dato’ Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin lambasted the gross overreaction by other Muslims to what he considered a trivial, easily-remedied issue.
While there might still be actions planned by various groups over the matter, the National Fatwa Council’s decree should serve to quiet most of the public outcry concerning #chocolategate. Cadbury PR must be breathing out a long sigh of relief.
See Also:
Haram! Cadbury chocolates found to have pig DNA; the internet explodes
Chocolategate: a Malay rights group wants to sue Cadbury for “mistreating” Muslims
Chocolategate: Malay-Muslim NGOs declare ‘jihad’ on Cadbury
Chocolategate: ABIM denounces call to burn down Cadbury factory
Former Mufti of Perlis delivers sick burn on #chocolategate, goes viral
