WASHINGTON, 14 July — A bill making it a misdemeanor to sell food products falsely labeled as halal, was signed into law in California on Monday by Gov. Gray Davis.
Gov. Davis signed the bill, which was sponsored by Assemblyman Bill Campbell, during a news conference at the Islamic Cultural Center in Los Angeles. “Halal is the Islamic equivalent to the Jewish kosher, and therefore a sacred necessity for the Islamic faithful,” Gov. Davis said.
The law made it a penalty that includes as much as 90 days in jail and a $600 fine for misrepresentation of foods that have not been prepared in accordance with Islamic dietary laws.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, announced this week’s passage of the Halal Food Bill in the California state legislature. Similar bills have passed in the states of New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota. (Halal meat is slaughtered under specific Islamic guidelines on content and preparation.)
The bill, which passed both the Assembly and the Senate without opposition, will protect Muslim consumers from halal food fraud. It makes it a misdemeanor to, with the intent to defraud, sell or expose for sale, “meat, meat products, or any food product that is falsely represented as being halal, or as having been prepared according to Islamic religious requirements.”
“The passage of the Halal Food Bill reflects the growing needs of the Muslim community and provides an example of the importance of our community’s participation in the political process,” said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR’s southern California chapter.
“Like every group in America, our participation was the key to having our issues addressed,” Ayloush told Arab News in a telephone interview yesterday.
Ayloush said it took “just over a year” to get the Halal Bill to be voted on. They decided to act on the issue after several Muslim families told CAIR that some food was being mislabeled and sold as halal that was not.
“For example, before this bill was passed, someone could sell non-zabiha meat, or non-Islamically slaughtered as halal, as based on their own interpretation of what halal is, and they would sell it to people who strictly observe zabiha-only meat,” said Ayloush.
