As public opinion regarding Muslims continues to be challenged by recent news events, there are some in the West who are looking past all that and are instead considering how to best cater to their needs. But it's not necessarily a new found socio-political sympathy. Just as oil revenues have kept certain Muslim states economically linked to the West, the growing purchasing power of Muslims in Western countries has created a group too seductive to be reviled completely.

Until recently, companies that merely listened to a potential Muslim clientele invited accusations of "dhimmitude", consorting with the enemy, or caving in to religion in an agnostic (or at least Judeo-Christian) marketplace. Yet, in spite of this, more companies are noticing the estimated $170 billion annually that Muslim consumers spend in the US alone (and these Muslim Americans, many of whom immigrated as highly-educated professionals, consistently rank as one of the highest per-capita income groups in the country). Similarly, Muslims in the US and UK are attracting the attention of marketing professionals because they are a younger, more attractive demographic than their non-Muslim peers. As a result, Muslim economic (i.e., halal) needs area slowly being supplied in greater numbers by non-Muslims.

While companies have targeted ethnic groups for some time now, there have been few examples of target demographics based on religion. Some publishing companies have had luck with targeting Christian households with appropriately-themed materials, but those markets are also served by well-established niche companies. Muslims, on the other hand, have a purchasing power that overwhelms the still-small collection of businesses that caters exclusively to them (mainly Mom-and-Pop restaurants, stores, and markets). And since nothing attracts the corporate world like the smell of unharvested profits, businesses from Citibank to IKEA are wondering just how much Muslim marketing they can produce without alienating their other customers, and initial forays are meeting with some success.

For example, when two McDonald's restaurants in Melbourne, Australia switched to halal sources for their meat, sales doubled despite some protests by non-Muslims (select McDonald's restaurants in the UK followed suit this week). The Nando's restaurant chain has profited immensely by offering halal offerings of its Portuguese chicken in 25% of its stores in the UK. One entrepreneur is even seeking to export prepackaged organic halal pizzas from Canada to Muslim populations throughout North America and Europe. "There are a lot of Muslims who would eat this up," says Angelo Alof , founder of Organic Halal International Foods (and master of puns, evidently).

As for mainstream foods, another businessman has helped introduce and distribute in the UK halal sweets (including Gummi Bears) by Haribos, one of Europe's biggest sweet manufacturers. Nestle has become the biggest multi-national food manufacturer for Muslims, producing halal food in 75 of its 481 factories and earning over $3 billion in annual sales. And for those Muslim entrepreneurs, such as restaurant owners, who are looking for Islamically-compatible business-to-business services, Lloyd's TSB Bank has begun offering Islamic business accounts in Britain.

Next month, two conferences on the halal industry, the World Halal Forum and MIHAS, will take place in Malaysia, a country that aims to be a "halal hub" for the world halal food industry. But among the attendees will be representatives of many non-Muslim countries, such as New Zealand, South Africa, and India, which are aiming to be the leading suppliers of halal meat to Muslims, both domestic and international. These countries are starting to take notice of changing tastes among Muslims around the world, as the spending patterns of younger generations more closely mirror their non-Muslim peers rather than their Muslim parents.

For Muslims, all this attention is a double-edged sword. Becoming an official (and lucrative) demographic in the eyes of the corporate world ensures a base level of respect and protection by the larger society. After all, nobody likes to slaughter a cash cow. But in the process, the Muslim community stands to lose a great deal of control over its own economic potential. What chance does the local Halal butcher have, for example, when Muslims can pick up shrink-wrapped halal meats at the local Safeway while they do their everyday shopping? The irony is that the Muslim consumer market is maturing faster than Muslim food and halal service providers. But the good news is everybody might start to love us.

Being in Singapore for more than a decade, I can appreciate how powerful the Halal industry can become. Although a non-muslim country, Halal food is more easily available (popular food chains like KFC, Macs, BK etc. are all certified Halal) here than in the West. Increasingly many other food chains are following suit as they do not want to loose a certain percentage of muslim dollars.

Halal food industry can play a significant role in the West, by not just earning significant dollars and fulfill muslims' dietary needs, but also showing the growing positive influence of muslims around the world.

Now, if only I can find a pizza chain that delivers 'halal' Canadian Bacon and Ham pizza with a completely non-alcoholic beer...

I don't have much of an opinion as long as it tastes the same and if, *if* its healthier, all the better. But, how does halal food do this:

>>but also showing the growing positive influence of muslims around the world.

What's positive about halal food compared to similar regimes already long established in green markets? I would dare to say that its more about asserting our existence as "different-from-you" more than it being a positive influence.

TarikwithaK,

I'm with you on the Canadian Bacon. Can we add sausage links and ground turkey to the list too?

OmarG:

some positive influences:
- contributing significantly to the economy of a country (~$170 billion in US alone)
- when more companies invest on Halal food, their marketing instruments (ads, commercials etc.) will include/target muslim community. This would help create better awareness of muslims.
- currently, fewer people know about Halal than Kosher. Again, this will help to create more awareness of muslims as Islam is one of the least understood religions in the West. Although, this figure is getting better post 9-11. I can relate examples when non-muslims wanted to know more about Halal food - this discussion often led to more inquisitive questions about Islam.
- It will further help to show that muslims are a significant part of the society as more and more Halal food/restaurant appear.

My opinion about food is that being a muslim, I will not eat any food unless it is Halal irrespective of its taste or nutritious value.

I don't see anything wrong if the food corporations of the world switch to halal products. Yes, to some extent, these companies are capitalizing on the Muslim demographic--but capitalization is different from exploitation and I see none of the latter at the moment.

And as far as the halal "butchers" and meat markets are concerned, they should have anticipated the possibilities of this happening. It was inevitable especially in countries such as the United States, England and Germany, where the Muslim population has increased significantly. Markets notice such things-in fact Muslims who work for these companies convey the stats.

Halal meat is only better than non-Halal meat today because it tends to be more of a "handcrafted" good, with animals raised in smaller farms, rather than a factory farmed/mechanized one. Once halal goes mainstream and is produced in the same factories as today's non-halal meat, it will lose that advantage.

That is, unless "halal" can be defined to include organic requirements...

>>That is, unless "halal" can be defined to include organic requirements...

That's the only plausible reason I could see halal going mainstream, that is, if it had a neat twist on the "organic" concept. More power to them if they can accomplish this. I would rather it go mainstream than becoming a tool of self-ghettoization. Atif, I would only buy halal products or even any Muslim-made products in general if they match other brands by price and quality. Perhaps the mainstreaming of halal foods will, as with Midamar, raise the bar for quality from its sorry state today and lower the prices from thier hieghts to more market-bearing prices.

And given the higher prices that halal products, as any niche product commands, it will of course filter out the Muslims who can least afford it, which usually would be the refugees, inner city Muslims and the others who don't make over 100K a year for which we just love being fawned over.

That's the only plausible reason I could see halal going mainstream, that is, if it had a neat twist on the "organic" concept.

Remember the Hebrew National kosher campaigns ("We answer to a higher authority")? This was directed at Gentiles, not Jews, on the basis of quality. No reason halal couldn't be marketed the same way. Now who would have the foresight to do that?

another alternative - since there are many similarities between kosher and halal, why not they join forces to sell their products together?
perhaps it can be another example of camaraderie in this world full of hatred?

Zahed, I don't know Hebrew National's sales ranking to see how successful that campaign is, but they are beef hotdogs which is a sub-market all its own. Also, I'm willing to bet that many of their customers either want high quality beefdogs or are buying from HN because of their own evengelical sympathy to support pro-Israel businesses. We currently, nor do I see the possibility, of us grabbing a huge non-Muslim sympathy market. A Halal company would have to compete strongly with the already established kosher brands. People are socialized to know what kosher is because of watching about it on TV. We do not get anything remotely sympathetic from the media. Also, Atif, I thought the same thing, too, about kosher and halal joining forces because of their similar basics. The details are different enough, but I wonder if Muslims would like having the concept of Halal merging with the mildly different concept of kosher. Now, *that* would be cultural assimilation.

>> the Nando's restaurant chain has profited immensely by offering halal offerings of its Portuguese chicken

Portuguese .. haha

It's already happened:

Muslims and Jews might not agree about much that goes on in the Middle East, but when it comes to food, they're warming up. Food processing companies of both faiths came together Thursday at the World Ethnic Market show in the Anaheim Convention Center to pitch such delicacies as halal chicken samosas and kosher Italian sausage to retailers from Albertsons to Wild Oats. The trade show, which continues today, is the nation's first to pair food produced according to the laws of Islam and Judaism, organizers said... Both companies are tapping into a growing interest in food produced in accordance with ancient dietary laws, said Antoine Bonnel, a Paris-based food-marketing consultant and partner in the Anaheim trade fair. Although recent demographic studies show that the U.S. Jewish population stands at between 5 million and 6 million and is slowly declining because of intermarriage and assimilation, the quantity of kosher products available at the supermarket is on the rise... Demand for kosher food is swelling because a growing number of non-Jewish consumers are using the label symbol that denotes kosher certification as shorthand to discern which products are vegetarian or contain dairy ingredients... Although this was the first domestic trade show where halal and kosher products were jointly marketed, certification authorities for each faith have taken initial steps to work together, including persuading the steel industry to stop using animal products to protect metal used in canning, said Joe Regenstein, a Cornell University food science professor and head of the Cornell Kosher Food Initiative.

For the record, Kosher and Halal (while having some similarities) are not the same. Kosher does not allow the combination of meat and milk products (no cheeseburgers!). Halal does not have such restrictions. That would probably discourage a Kosher-Halal Alliance (or KHA)...

Defining the word "halal" is a very sticky issues. Most of the Arab Muslims in my city eat meat (non-pork) from the grocery store and consider it "halal". Many in the Indo-pak community will only eat "zabiha", which is not easy to come by in our city. Most people travel 3-5 hours to buy their meat in bulk. Many any the Arab community are offended when asked if they are serving "halal" meat in their homes as it implies that they are eating haram foods if the meat is not zabiha.

Portuguese .. haha

Don't laugh - it's damn good chicken. Gimme some of that peri-peri sauce!

>> kosher Italian sausage

Now we're talking the good stuff!

But, in all seriousness, will Halal offerings extend to ethnic foods outside of the commonly conceived Muslim ethnicities? I couldn't tell you if they do now, because like the people peace4all mentioned, to me its halal if it has no pork or alcohol in it or wasn't sacrificed to Wicca / Shiva / print($pagan_diety). I'm not a fanatic over zabiha.

As for the success of kosher brands mentioned above as being shorthand for certain healthy living lifestyles, that's exactly what I mean: Halal / zabiha (more accurately) food manufacturers will need a similar marketing twist to successfully compete. All the best to them, eh.

And given the higher prices that halal products, ....

Nothing to worry about there. Been inside a halal butcher's shop lately? I don't see any difference in price whatsoever. McDonalds and other big chains in Dearborn, Michigan offer halal items on the menu at the same price as the non-halal (I won't say haram) equivalent. America, thanks be to God, is one country where just about everyone can afford to eat well, and eat zabihah too if they only have the inclination.

Kosher does not allow the combination of meat and milk products (no cheeseburgers!). True, and some other animals are out too: shellfish, rabbit, and a few more. With regard to the slaughtering itself, the biggest (only) difference is Kosher meat must be covered in salt and left to sit for a period of time (perhaps to suck out more blood?) after the neck is cut.

Check out the Halal Journal, a Malaysian Trade Magazine.

Zahed - I just found the easter egg on the KFC picture - ROTFL!