‘O You who Believe, Eat of the Tayyibāt (pure and wholesome food) that We Have Provided You’—Producing Risk, Expertise and Certified Halal Consumption in South Africa
In: Journal of Religion in AfricaSearch for other papers by Shaheed Tayob in
Current site
Google Scholar
This article is an analysis of the development of halal consumption in South Africa. Research on the contemporary consumption of halal has argued for an articulation of Muslim identity in a variety of settings. What evades these scholarly analyses is the production of halal as a commodity. How is it that halal consumption, as defined by Islamic dietary law, has been produced into a separately identifiable product? This paper argues that in South Africa the production of certified halal has been produced through an extensive campaign that identified the power of the Muslim consumer, consumption as an Islamic imperative, and the contemporary risks to halal presented by food technology and cross-contamination. Communicating with the Muslim consumer and identifying risks to halal consumption established a particular form of halal-certification expertise. The result was an increase in the visibility of halal and the establishment of halal-certification organizations as necessary intermediaries for the proper practice of halal. In the process taqwa was recalibrated to mean vigilance against uncertified consumption as the inspection of a halal label was introduced into the determination of halal.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Asad T. The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam 1986 Washington, DC Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University
-
Beck U. Ritter M. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity 1992 London Sage Publications Ltd
-
Bergeaud-Blackler F. ‘New Challenges for Islamic Ritual Slaughter: A European Perspective’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 2007 33 6 965 980
-
Bewley H. ‘Khutba on Halal Certification’ 2009 Retrieved 15 October 2010, from http://www.jumuamosquect.com/index.php?id=123
-
Bonne K. & Verbeke W. ‘Religious Values Informing Halal Meat Production and the Control and Delivery of Halal Credence Quality’ Agriculture and Human Values 2008 25 35 47
-
Carr E.S. ‘Enactments of Expertise’ Annual Review of Anthropology 2010 39 17 32
-
Cobbett E. ‘The Shaping of Islamic Finance in South Africa: Public Islam and Muslim Publics’ Journal for Islamic Studies 2011 31 29 59
-
Cook M. ‘Early Islamic Dietary Law’ Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 1986 7 218 277
-
Corlett Donald A. HACCP User’s Manual 1998 Gaithersburg Aspen Publishers Inc.
-
Das V. ‘For a Folk-theology and Theological Anthropology of Islam’ Contributions to Indian Sociology 1984 18 293 300
-
Eickelman Dale F. & Anderson J.W. Eickelman Dale F. , Anderson Jon W. & Tessler M. ‘Redefining Muslim Publics’ New Median in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere 2003 2nd ed Bloomington Indiana University Press 1 18
-
El-Zein A.H. ‘Beyond Ideology and Theology: The Search for the Anthropology of Islam’ Annual Review of Anthropology 1977 6 227 254
-
Fischer J. The Halal Frontier: Muslim Consumers in a Globalized Market 2011 New York Palgrave Macmillan
-
Fischer J. ‘Branding Halal: A Photographic Essay on Global Muslim Markets’ Anthropology Today 2012 28 4 18 21
-
Freidenreich D.M. Foreigners and Their Food: Constructing Otherness in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Law 2011 Berkeley, Los Angeles, London University of California Press
-
Giddens A. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age 1991 Cambridge Polity Press
-
Gillette M.B. Watson J.L. & Caldwell M.L. ‘Children’s Food and Islamic Dietary Restrictions in Xi’an’ The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader 2005 Malden Blackwell Publishing 106 121
-
Goodwin C. ‘Professional Vision’ American Anthropologist 1994 96 606 633
-
Goolam Vahed & Jeppie Shamil Daniel John , Southall Roger & Lutchman Jessica ‘Multiple Communities: Muslims in Post-apartheid South Africa’ The State of the Nation: South Africa 2003-2004 2005 Cape Town HSRC Press 252 286
-
Jeppie S. ‘Leadership and Loyalties: The Imam of the Nineteenth-century Colonial Cape Town, South Africa’ Journal of Religion in Africa 1996 26 2 139 162
-
Marx K. Moore S. & Aveling E. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy 1887 Moscow Progress Publishers
-
Mather C. & Greenberg S. ‘Market Liberalisation in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Restructuring of Citrus Exports after “Deregulation” ’ Journal of Southern African Studies 2003 29 2 393 412
-
Metcalf B.D. ‘The Madrasa at Deoband: A Model for Religious Education in Modern India’ Modern Asian Studies 1978 12 1 111 134
-
Moosagie M.A. Trends In Justificatory Force of the Fatawa Of The Deobandi Mufti 1995 Cape Town University of Cape Town
-
Naude J.A. ‘The “Ulama” in South Africa with Special Reference to the Transvaal “Ulamā” ’ Journal for Islamic Studies 1982 2 23 39
-
Powers P.R. ‘Interiors, Intentions, and the “Spirituality” of Islamic Ritual Practice’ Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2004 72 2 425 459
-
Rafudeen A. ‘The Orion Cold Storage Saga: Debating “Halaal” in South Africa’ Alternation 2013 11 134 162
-
Riaz M.N. & Chaudry M.M. Halal food production 2004 Boca Raton CRC Press
-
sanha ‘Simba: A Hot Potato’ Halal Gazette 2001 1
-
sanha ‘The Need to Heed! Halal Certification’ Halal Gazette 2001 2
-
sanha ‘Does this mean it is Haraam? “Not certified by sanha” ’ Halal Gazette 2002 3
-
sanha ‘10 Fold Subscriber Increase’ Flash News. 2008 Retrieved 28 November 2011
-
sanha ‘Capping the Tizz over the Fizz’ Halal Gazette 2012 13
-
sanha ‘Brief Intro to sanh’a 2015 Retrieved 29 April 2015, from http://www.sanha.co.za/a/index.php?option=com_contentandtask=viewandid=27andItemid=281
-
sanha ‘Chicken, Nothing but the Chicken’ Halal Gazette 2015 19
-
Shaw P. ‘South Africa: The Halal Kingdom’ 2012 Retrieved 18 August 2012, from http://gulfbusiness.com/2012/07/south-africa-the-halal-kingdom/#.UUigAlt36Bk
-
Tayob A. Islam in South Africa: Mosques, Imams, and Sermons 1999 Gainesville University Press of Florida
-
Vahed G. ‘Uprooting, Rerooting: Culture, Religion and Community among Indentured Muslim Migrants in Colonial Natal, 1860-1911’ South African Historical Journal 2001 45 191 222
-
Vahed G. ‘Contesting “Orthodoxy”: The Tablighi-Sunni Conflict among South African Muslims in the 1970s and 1980s’ Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 2003 23 2 313 334
-
Vahed G. ‘Islam in the Public Sphere in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Prospects and Challenges’ Journal for Islamic Studies 2007 27 116 149
-
6
Elizabeth Cobett (2011) has made a similar argument in the context of the expanding industry for Islamic finance products in South Africa.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 4490 | 147 | 42 |
| Full Text Views | 251 | 11 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 87 | 11 | 1 |
‘O You who Believe, Eat of the Tayyibāt (pure and wholesome food) that We Have Provided You’—Producing Risk, Expertise and Certified Halal Consumption in South Africa
In: Journal of Religion in AfricaSearch for other papers by Shaheed Tayob in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This article is an analysis of the development of halal consumption in South Africa. Research on the contemporary consumption of halal has argued for an articulation of Muslim identity in a variety of settings. What evades these scholarly analyses is the production of halal as a commodity. How is it that halal consumption, as defined by Islamic dietary law, has been produced into a separately identifiable product? This paper argues that in South Africa the production of certified halal has been produced through an extensive campaign that identified the power of the Muslim consumer, consumption as an Islamic imperative, and the contemporary risks to halal presented by food technology and cross-contamination. Communicating with the Muslim consumer and identifying risks to halal consumption established a particular form of halal-certification expertise. The result was an increase in the visibility of halal and the establishment of halal-certification organizations as necessary intermediaries for the proper practice of halal. In the process taqwa was recalibrated to mean vigilance against uncertified consumption as the inspection of a halal label was introduced into the determination of halal.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 4490 | 147 | 42 |
| Full Text Views | 251 | 11 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 87 | 11 | 1 |