Last month, a photo was circulated by email and on blogs that has a pack of pork meat with a sticker saying Halal on it. The packer is a Singapore company and the country of origin is Australia.

Halal حلال is an Arabic word meaning 'permissible', but in non-Arabic speaking Muslim countries it takes a legal meaning derived from Islamic law. Pork is forbidden in Islam, just like Judaism. Hence it can never be "halal" in either sense of the word.

It seems that some bloggers thought it was true, while others thought it was a sick joke.

The Singapore company, FairPrice, reported the matter to police, and said that this is a 'deliberate and wilful act of mischief'. Moreover, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) conducted its own investigation, and found none of the items in question carrying the Halal seal sticker.

Links

• Amylia's blog.
• Sub Zero Blue's blog.
• Mark, a Lebanese in Kuwait,on the 248am blog.
• Amira Al Hussaini on Global Voices summarizes the blogs and comments about this photo.
• Strait Times: FairPrice alerts police to 'halal pork' photo on net.