Tech Companies Goes Halal

JAPAN. Panasonic Corp. and Sharp Corp. have been granted halal-certifications for their products which makes it possible for them to access the profitable Muslim market.

The companies guarantee that their goods haven’t come into contact with pork or alcohol and the screenings to meet the strict halal standards even covered the materials of the gloves worn by workers and the brushes they use.

Panasonics workers also had to stop wearing wristwatches as they could be regarded as unpure according to sharia. If the watch had touched pork or alcohol when the workers were off work it could be transferred to the appliences and make them unpure. They also started a halal product line at their plant in Hikone, changed cleaning tools, started using a halal cleaning agent and asked staff to wash their hands seven times a day.

All of this gave Panasonic certification for its water purifiers and water ionizers for the Malaysian market. Sharp also made changes which gave them certification for its refrigerators manufactured at plants in Indonesia and Thailand.

There are more than 200 organizations providing halal-certifications worldwide, but there isn’t any unified standards of what a certification like that encompass. But it’s a profitable market as every company must pay one or several fees to get the certification. In Sweden it’s the lobby organization Islamguiden which provides certification. They are known for salafism and having contact with radicals.

So I can’t help but wonder where the money from these certifications goes and if it funds terrorism. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they do.

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