No Pork Served!
Don't Ask, Don't Tell!
Recently, there seems to be more and more restaurants skirting around the halal issue by having No Pork Served hanging up on their walls.
Others make sure that they have the appropriate Tudong (headscarf) clad waitresses out front to give the appearance of being a safe eating environment for Muslims.
There seems to be a pattern developing.
That pattern is non-Muslim restaurant owners not putting up signs which read Non Halal, but instead having signs that read “No Pork”, “No Pork Served” or not having any sign at all.
When one friend contacted a restaurant in Penang on if they served pork the response received was “No, we don’t serve pork”!
Assuming the restaurant was halal the venue was booked for the event. However, after a subsequent call and questioning on if the restaurant was halal, the employee stated that it was not.
Did the employee not make the connection between the inquiry about pork and Muslim concerns over halal certification? Or was this just an oversight on the part of the restaurant employee?
Another restaurant in Kuala Lumpur has the right bait to draw in Muslim (money) patrons, but again when asked if the restaurant is halal, the response is no because they serve beer.
My first thoughts were and still are: Who serves the beer?
Is it now part of a Muslim sister or brother’s job description to serve beer?
Are things to the point where a sister or brother will close an eye and just view drink as another beverage?
Even LCCT airport seems to be plague by restaurants which on the surface appear to be safe for Muslims, but are not halal certified.
So how are we caught?
The problem is that we Muslims are so accustomed to restaurants being halal that we have stopped asking. As a result, we find ourselves eating at more and more non-halal restaurants.
We see Muslims sitting there eating or ordering food so we follow suit. As this continues you have more and more Muslims seen in the establishment. Then the herding syndrome takes place.
Our behavior is almost like those Wildebeest we see on National Geographic; after a few jump into the river they all rush in.
Little do they realize (or maybe they do) that the river is infested with alligators waiting to devour them!
However, is it wrong for the alligator to conceal its true motives by remaining hidden? After all, all it wants is to eat!
Likewise is it wrong for restaurant owners to not openly admit the fact that they do not have halal certification and to give the impression of being so by having Muslims out front?
Perhaps, not wrong legally, but Ethically…
Who is to be held accountable for this type of duplicity; the restaurant owners, Muslim staff who are willing or unwilling pawns or the government for not protecting every aspect of our lives?
Let’s forgo the blame game on this one and look in the mirror.
Isn’t it our responsibility as consumers to ask; if the establishment we enter has halal certification; especially when they proudly display the No Pork Served signage?
So “Let the Muslim Consumer Beware” because now there seems to be a “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell Policy” and the next meal you eat may not be Halal!
As-Salaam Alaikum
Muneer A. Rasheed
International Consultant & Advisor (PPIM)
AS Consulting
The World Muslim Consumer Association
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