Zaid Wants Jakim To Expand Its Halal Mission Beyond Plates To Graft Fight Declare Dirty Money Haram

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“If JAKIM (Department of Islamic Development Malaysia) wishes to be the moral guardian of the nation, then let it expand its mission,” proposed former der-facto law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim in his latest social media post.

“Let it declare that corruption is haram, that abuse of office is haram, that siphoning billions meant for the rakyat is haram. Let halal certification apply not only to foo, but to governance itself.”
Elaborating further, the opposition-slant UMNO member is aghast at JAKIM being fastidious about the slaughterhouse but “turn a blind eye to the marketplace of politics where wealth and power are traded without shame”.

“We police restaurants for signs of halal certification yet ignore the filth in our cities, the leakages in our budgets and the abuse of trust by those in authority,” he observed.
“This is the contradiction that weakens us as a people. We’re told what we can or cannot eat but nobody dares to certify whether our governance, our contracts and our institutions are halal.”
Incorporate moral policing
Zaid’s call for JAKIM to perhaps complement the role of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) stems from a personal encounter when he ordered a fish dish at a restaurant but the waitress politely declined to serve him on grounds that the establishment is not halal.

This episode prompted the founder of Zaid Ibrahim & Co, the largest private law firm in Malaysia (which he no longer owns) to reflect that long before JAKIM turned halal certification into a billion-ringgit industry, Muslims in Malaysia already knew what halal constitutes.

“My father, my grandfather and generations before them decided for themselves what was permissible to eat. We trusted our knowledge, our community and our conscience,” recounted Zaid.
“Today, however, Muslims are told that unless a government body issues a stamp, the food is questionable. Halal has become less about faith and more about bureaucracy.”
Datuk Zaid IbrahimHenceforth, the former defence counsel of now incarcerated former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak contended that this raises a deeper question.
“If JAKIM decides what is halal to eat, can it also tell us where it is halal to sleep? Is the country itself halal when our environment is dirty, when illegal activities are rampant and when abuse of power/corruption corrodes every institution?” wondered Zaid.
“Halal in its truest sense is not just about food. It is about purity, justice, honesty and fairness. The Qur’an and Hadith are clear; corruption is haram, cheating the poor is haram, exploiting the weak is haram. Yet these thrive openly while we quarrel over kitchen stamps.” 
Editor’s Note: Interestingly, most commenters trained their guns on Zaid over the fuss of being denied a fish meal in a non-halal restaurant.
Nevertheless, this argument by a self-proclaimed critical Muslim thinker Kagayaku Seijūrō (@4zharabdullah) is too enlightening to be missed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
“The issue is not merely the species of food but the environment in which it is prepared,” explained the commenter.
“Fish in a non-halal kitchen may be fried in oil mixed with lard, cooked with utensils that touch pork or stored with alcohol. Halal is about process, utensils and purity, not just the meat itself.”
He added: “That’s why the waitress was correct to refuse service. She was protecting both the restaurant’s integrity and the Muslim customer from doubtful food.”

- focus malaysia

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