The Bodu Bala Sena will recommence its battle against the Halal Certification to root it out entirely from the country, one of the organisation’s leading monks has pledged.
Galagodaaththe Gnanasara
General Secretary of the BBS, Buddhists monk Galagodaaththe Gnanasara said that although the group had stepped away from the battle against Halal because of the intervention of the Maha Sanga, the problem has not yet been resolved.
He said that although the All Ceylon Jamaiythul Ulema had promised to remove the Halal logo from products in the Sri Lankan market that promise had been broken. Although the authorities were still permitting products bearing the Halal logo to be available in the market.
Qassim ben Qassim / August 3, 2013
@Mahela – Thumps up for you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Qassim ben Qassim / August 3, 2013
Some of these guys above are like the bats they use the mouth for both ( Dual Purpose ? ,,,, damned bigots…
when will they ever learn –
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jehan / August 4, 2013
Sri Lanken buddhist should not be like the Germans when Hitler started attacking jews with his thugs. If the majority are decent human beings,they should make there voice heard when it comes to racist behaviour of these anti sri lanken groups. such as bbs/singhala ravaya etc..Sri lanken muslims on the other hand must prepare for another 1983 july. Mobs will come and if muslims dont prepare to defend there property and life a calamity will occure. First they will attack place of worship,next business,then women and children,schools. this is happening now by looking at statistics. Muslim mps wont help they are too reactionary and bunch of cowards. Its to the civic movements in the muslim community to prepare as Quran and hadith states.
eg:When praying in all mosque have some people stay guard,and have two
jamaths- first group guard then they pray and others guard. as i foresee these racist attacking mosque when prayer is being conducted -proactive thinking is needed if we are to avert the next myanmar
And inshalla the muslims in sri lanka are capable if we can unite all
our resources for our survival.
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Annonymous / August 5, 2013
SILVA IS a “Original” Sri Lankan? , but his MUM had tea with a portuguese and while his mum had plain tea ,the portuguese had fresh milk &now he looks like little kahata into milk(Lite Tea),,then his mother decided not to call gamarala ,apuhammy or Nanapala , but named him “SILVA”
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Afker / August 5, 2013
Start the Halal Issue to divert attention from the Weliweriya Incident and the corruption and nepotism practiced by Rajapakse and Company.
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Shiham / October 17, 2013
MAJOR MATTER OVER A MINER CERTIFICATE, MOST BUDDHISTS UNDERSTANDS NOW THAT WE MUSLIMS EAT CLEANER FOOD! AL HAMDULILAH
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Fathima Fukushima / October 17, 2013
BBS, please stop this madness.
Muslims are friends of Buddhists. Tamils are the only enemies.
Did the Muslims bomb the Dalada Maligawa? No.
Did the Muslims kill pilgrims at the holy tree? No.
Did Muslims chop 35 young Buddhist monks? No.
Tamils did these heinous crimes. Go whack the Tamils. Leave Muslims alone.
We don’t stop you eating “danai” at temple. So why stop our food?
If you don’t want to eat halal eat other food. We come in peace.
But if you are trying to be too smart, please remember what Muslims did to a British soldier 3 months ago in a London street.
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Ahmed / October 30, 2013
Some racist elements of Sri Lankan Buddhist such as Bodu Bala Sena recommence their propaganda against halal. Their objective is to root it out entirely from the country for reason unknown, the reason known to them has gone to the extent to highlight “ The Bodu Bala Sena believes its anti-Halal agitation is far more important than taking up the Government’s move to create casino zones in the capital Colombo, the group’s Chief Executive Officer Dilanthe Withanage told Colombo Telegraph.” (Published in Colombo Telegraph on October 22, 2013) . Such claims speaks for itself who is behind this fools play.
Let’s examine Halal the issue in detail and the truth behind the claims.
1.Increasing cost and customer has to bear the cost.
An absurd claim placed by racists is, halal increases selling price of the product. It might affect a cost a little but will it affect the selling price? This is the place racist elements need some education on the subject. Selling price having two elements,
I.cost
II.Profit margin.
Which is given in; price = cost + profit margin
In a free market economy, price of a product is determined by the demand and supply, at a particular price, highest sale will materialize and that price will be considered as the best price by the producer. By increasing the demand, a higher profit is earned via increased sale with a same selling price though margin may reduce a bit on its way increasing the demand.
This is what happening in the case of halal. Companies try to attract Muslim consumers by obtaining a halal certification and there is NO need to transfer the cost to general public as company is absorbing it by reducing its profit margin for a unit, keeping the price that preferred by the consumers as it was, mean time as number of unit sale increases due to the increase in demand higher total net profit can be achieved.
If this has nothing to do with ultimate consumer, racist organizations are just blind on their demands. It should be noted that even ISO certification is not mandatory and obtained to get the customer confidence, thereby can increase the demand.
2.Not compulsory
The certification is not compulsory for a company. As we pointed out in the first point, the objective is to increase the demand, if they fail to achieve such a demand hike, the company having the choice to revoke the certification. No company is obliged to feed Muslims at a cost. If it’s a choice, the reason to attack such a move is utter stupidity and again reflects their level of intelligence.
3.Who is the loser?
Halal is observed in every affairs of a Muslim’s life; when it comes to food, it is the food items that are allowed for Muslims, it’s not just confined to meat products. Any product that mixed with alcohol or pork product (such as type of gelatin) is not allowed for Muslims to consume. In absence of halal certification non-Muslim businesses not going to attract Muslim consumers and the end losers will be those non-Muslim producers. This was already highlighted by some heads of the company and some companies incurred loses already. Lack of choice is the only disadvantage that Muslims can face. In other words “halal” links the business between Muslims and none Muslims.
4.What Muslims ate before?
Some even points out that, Muslims never had such requirement in the past. This in fact shows their level of understanding about the reality. In past we never had SLS. But it emerges in today’s society. In the same way, in the past Muslims had limited consumer requirements though they were adhering to halal and market was not flooded with products as it is now. Understanding the product’s nature and manufacturing process involve had become a concern due to complexity of the products. Hence such requirement emerged in today’s society.
5.What concerns Buddhist?
In fact some interpret Buddhism as doesn’t allow any meat products; hence it has nothing to do with the halal in meat products. So, any Buddhist organization must not take a biased stand on it while neglecting pork, chicken and fish. Mean time Buddhism doesn’t allow alcohol or pork. If so, halal certification in non-meat products is in line with Buddhist requirement. The demand for taking away is not appropriate as it helps Buddhist as well.
6.Exports and tourism
Many Arab tourists visit Sri Lanka and foreign exchange earned by them is a strength to the country. By preventing halal we simply limiting their spending in Sri Lanka, also due to unavailability of halal products risk of losing this tourist segment is obvious. Mean time export market is having enough and more share with halal products and might lose income over it too. Placing halal logo in the product is the communication between producer and consumer. So it’s utter stupidity to claim to avoid logo while having a certification both locally and overseas. By having a certification for overseas and not communicating in local product the organization is losing the market locally and paying for the certification without getting the use out of it. Such claim simply shows these racists are nothing but an intention to undermine Muslim needs in Sri Lanka. Government’s blind eye over them shows the stand on government as well.
7.First of its kind, proud or shame?
I have seen in a forum, one was proudly said that Sri Lanka was the first to beat terrorism and halal. Of course credit can be given for beating the terrorism, but what about “halal”? In fact some developed countries such as Canada; government organization providing supports such as information on halal for producers to increase their market share both locally and overseas (see the link below) . But in our grate country it was done other way around and some are proud about their stand on it. This will certainly show how the business world thinks of Sri Lankan in general thanks to this racist group, which in reality, do not represent the majority Buddhist.
http://www.ats-sea.agr.gc.ca/inter/4352-eng.htm
8.The Arabic word in concern
Another stupidity is that, the Arabic word of halal was the concern of some. Halal is an Arabic word meaning “lawful” or “permissible”. Perhaps only racist knows how it is different from English or Chines letters in many products in Sri Lanka? Because they are not Sinhala letters either.
9.Living abroad and eating halal
Sri Lanka earns foreign income via labor market and it is significant in number. Many of them are non- Muslims working in Middle East and eating halal food. If these racist are true to their campaign they must not allow non- Muslim sri lankan workers in these countries. They must pressure government, recall them and must not allow visit these countries.
10.Funding terror network.
Another accusation was ACJU is funding terror network, if so it should be handled by security personnel and not by Buddhist monks. All ACJU halal unit financial statement is audited by public auditors and ACJU had given an open invitation for concern security organization to check them all and their activity. To date none had been arrested on this regard. Is it appropriate for Buddhist monks to accuse blindly without any evidence? As a nonprofit organization it cannot allocate its funds other than the activity it has formed to do.
11.Non-Halal products.
Some people claim, they want the choice of non-halal. If it so, they must understand that there are enough and more products including meat available in supermarket which are non-halal. Mean time when it comes to non-meat products, certification process is to checks the ingredients. In this case halal and non-halal product processing has no difference. If a producer wants to produce something with non-halal ingredient, they are free to refrain from having the certificate.
12.Self-proclaimed halal logos.
Some organization such as “Raigam” brand went proudly from halal certification and placed their own halal logo. This in fact not entertained by any Muslims due to mishandling of the logo in Sri Lanka and overseas. There was an incident in Sri Lankan super market, pork sausage was bearing the hahal self-proclaimed logo. Recently pork was sold to Muslims in china calling it halal meat (see the link below) , these incidents further insists such claim should be approved by a body that can be trusted by Muslims. As business men are not following the ethics and their objective is increasing the profit, in today’s society it is necessary to certificate such claim.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=119623
13.Give it free.
This is another absurd claim by the illiterates. Which service that benefits a business organization given free. Who is going to bear the overhead cost that incurred during the issuing process? If so in which way they justify the claim that it should be given free. Do they place the same claim for ISO? Which is also a choice to increase the market share.
Certainly educated professionals should lead the country or any organization, if not; these unnecessary fiascos are hindrance for country’s development and might polarize the communities.
A simple advice to racist….
Better to be on limelight.. But not as a fool!
taken from
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=238302106328225&set=a.180760315415738.1073741827.161957150629388&type=1&relevant_count=1
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