Crepes and Cider (Halal of course!)

This article, on the growing spread of halal foods and other items, is from Yves Daoudal's weekly newsletter Hebdo #113. While it focuses primarily on Brittany, halal is becoming endemic throughout France and other countries:

When you arrive in Lorient from Lanester, just before the train station, you see on your right a perfectly traditional butcher shop, the kind we all like. But it is closed. Across the street, there is a large modern butcher shop. Halal. This scene is worth all the speeches anyone could make on Islamization.

On January 31, in Lorient, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the department of Morbihan organized a conference entitled "The Halal Market, a market within your reach". The topics covered:

- A world market for halal estimated at 457 billion euros in 2010.

- A Muslim population that should represent 30% of the world population in 2025.

- A halal label that concerns not only most food products but pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, personal care products and even services.

-Malaysia has become a world-wide reference for halal and allows the largest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia, to be accessible.

- In 2014, the port of Marseilles is scheduled to join a world network of distribution of halal products.

- A French halal market growing at the rate of 10% per year, that is more important than the market for organic foods.

- A not-very-complicated certification procedure that would allow access to this market in France and for export.

(…) The star of the day (and no doubt the one who inspired the day) was Bruno Bernard. An expert consultant in international commerce, Bruno Bernard has an impressive business card. For the moment let's note that he is counselor on foreign commerce for the Kingdom of Belgium, a member of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, the Moldavian Chamber of Commerce, the Franco-Belgian Chamber of Commerce, an accredited lobbyist in the European Parliament… For our purposes here, we will note especially that he is a "partner of the Brussels Chamber of Commerce for Official Halal Certifications."

In fact he created Eurohalal, the only official European halal certification, in collaboration with Beci. What is Beci? It's the Brussels Chamber of Commerce, But they call it the "Brussels Enterprises Commerce and Industry." Sic.

Bruno Bernard is not a Muslim. For him, halal is business, halal is marketing. A niche market like any other, like organic:

"Halal is a veritable way of life, just like organic. For some, organic products are nothing more than two or three vegetables in a wicker basket that you hand to some hippies once a month. But it's much more than that, since there are organic tee-shirts, organic medicine, and many other products that allow you to live while respecting certain principles. With halal, it's the same thing."

Note: I cannot take time to discuss in depth this fallacy. But organic refers to foods that are free of toxins and grown for the purpose of improving health. Halal, on the other hand, means the consumer is participating in a religious ritual, and subsidizing the religion in question. Two things could not be more dissimilar.

And halal certification is like any other, such as the ISO norms. (note: International Organization for Standardization)

He is proud of his halal certification, that only costs businesses 1500 euros a year.

"If we don't volunteer our services, these 1500 euros serve only to cover the costs tied to certification, namely, the imam's plane ticket, hotel, and the audit that is done first. Once these costs are paid, nothing is left, we are not there to get rich."

Bruno Bernard points out that he has made some enemies: a certification agency that charges 15,000 to 20,000 euros accused him of breaking the market. Bernard responded that the Koran forbids earning money in this way, to which the agency responded (to Bernard's shock) that most of the money went to Afghanistan to defend the cause.

So Bruno Bernard is interested in anything that can be certified halal. He himself created a halal beer, and in Lorient suggested that crepes be certified. The local paper Ouest France ran this headline: "Make halal crepes!"

He also said: "If you make cider, you can make it without alcohol and sell it in the Middle East. Obviously they don't have apple trees, there's nothing but sand!"

That last sentence shows contempt for Muslims from a man who claims to respect Muslims. Contempt for Muslims and for the people of Brittany, who eat crepes and drink cider (with a round hat), and who would be expected to make cider without alcohol which isn't cider. And naturally he displays his ignorance, since there isn't only sand down there, there are even apple trees, and the Lebanese (who produced 200,000 tons of apples last year) also make cider.

There is however one domain that Bruno Bernard won't touch: Islamic finance. He explains:

"If I decided to be a part of the coming of Islamic finance, I am nonetheless resolved to be very cautious on this matter. You must understand that an Islamic bank is bound to sharia."

Well, what do you know. He brings up sharia. But this is not about the fear of totalitarian religious constraints. Here's the rest of what he said:

"An investor, thus, becomes a participant in the profits and losses. Optimists would respond that the billions in the Gulf States are far from being exhausted, and that it would be profitable to attract Islamic investors to our shores, but that would be to forget that just two years ago, Dubai was bankrupt…"

In short, Islamic finance is a risk: you may lose as easily as win. That is why sharia arouses fear…

Otherwise, Bruno Bernard participates with all his might in Islamization. To develop commerce. Without considering for a second what Islam really is…

Note: The comment about the "round hat" refers to the shape of traditional Breton hats.