Tata-owned Air India (AI) has discounted offering halal-certified meals for Hindu and Sikh passengers.
In an internal circular issued on November 10, the AI said that it will provide halal certificates for meals on selected routes including Jeddah, Damman, Riyadh, Medina, and on all Haj flights.
For passengers on other routes, the airlines’ standard meal options will be available, but only if pre-booked.
The decision, which has come after a decade-long struggle against halal industry, reflects the airline’s commitment to respecting cultural sensitivities and dietary preferences.
It has made a significant shift in its meal service, particularly for its Hindu and Sikh passengers. The AI will stop offering halal-certified meals to passengers hailing from the Hindu and Sikh communities.
Also, the change symbolizes a victory for those who have been advocating for this in Air India’s meal offerings and in other sectors.
Meanwhile, the announcement was celebrated by several groups, expressing deep gratitude for the long-awaited change.
Many within the Hindu and Sikh communities have warmly received the change. It’s seen as a respectful nod towards their dietary preferences and religious practices and a triumph for Hindus and Sikhs over the pressures imposed by the ‘halal mafia’.
Also Read: Halal meat isn’t just a food preference, it’s the economic takeover of the meat industry
The battle against the provision of halal-certified meals has been on for over 10 years. It was characterized by persistent efforts to align the meal services with the preferences and beliefs of Hindu and Sikh passengers.
How the Halal mafia has economically taken over the meat industry
The ‘meat industry’ across the world is being ‘monopolized’ by the Muslims. It is a known fact that the followers of Islam consume ‘halal’ meat only. As per the definition of Halal Certification Services India Pvt Ltd (HCS), a state-run agency providing halal certification, ‘only the animals slaughtered in the name of Allah are halal’. The slaughter man must be ‘Muslim’ and Bismillah Allahu-Akbar needs to be recited before slaughtering the animal.
So, we can decipher two points from the above specifications. The first is that the ‘halal’ meat industry has a monopoly of a ‘religious community’ as any other person of other religious community will not slaughter the animal in the name of Allah. The food restaurants chains and slaughterhouses will be forced to employ a Muslim person as the people of the community have ‘specific choices’. The second point is that a ‘religiously processed food’ is being forced on other communities including Hindu, Sikh, Christians as they do not care whether the meat is halal or Jhatka.
According to an old study by Adroit Market Research, the global halal market is worth more than 4.54 trillion dollars. To give a comparison, this is more than the GDP of Germany, India, or the United Kingdom. By 2025, the global halal meat industry is expected to touch 9.71 trillion dollars with a complete monopoly of Muslims over it.
As per the Food Standards Agency of the United Kingdom, “51 percent of lamb, 31 percent of chicken, and 7 percent of beef slaughtered in Britain – from a total of 16 million animals per week – is now ‘religiously killed’, which is way more than total Muslim population of the country which is only 5 percent.
The halal meat industry is “of the Muslims, by the Muslims but for everyone’. In countries around the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, and India, the tiny Muslim minority has forced the majority community to adhere to their practices and standards.
This is nothing but a sort of economic jihad where the Muslim community has ‘monopolized’ a trillion-dollar industry in the name of religious preferences. The first lesson in elementary economics is that ‘Monopoly is bad for the community’. But here a whole industry, whose value is worth more than the GDP of some of the largest economies of the world, has been ‘monopolized’ and economists, lawyers, and activists are silent over it.
This kind of monopoly is also a clear economic boycott of the majority population of the country. As per the Indian constitution, an economic boycott of SC/ST is a punishable offence. The halal industry is a sort of economic boycott of the SC/ST community.
