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No, this tomato mix listed on Spar’s website is not halaal or kosher. Confused? Read on.
A misunderstanding about the Halaal status of Spar-branded products this week left a number of Christians feeling that they had been buying halaal products against their will.
But the grocery chain has assured Gateway News that none of its Spar-branded products are religiously certified and that customers who buy them for that reason can continue to do so.
So how did the confusion arise? Kamil Kiroglu, the founder of Egeiro Ministry, says they have been conducting research to identify non-halaal food products which can be bought by Christians who do not want to buy halaal products because of concerns about funding Islamisation.
He said: “When we phoned Spar Customer Service and inquired why is it that their products are not halaal, they informed us that in fact, most of their products are halaal. We were told that Spar does not put the halaal mark on their product packaging, but if we want, we can visit the Spar website to see which products are
halaal.”
Kiroglu sent Gateway News this link to a Spar web page which lists Spar-branded products together with designations like “halaal” and “kosher”.
Based on the telephone conversation and the website information, Egeiro Ministry and Christian Friendly Products, a company which promotes a Christian alternative to halaal labelling, posted on their Facebook pages that they had just learned that most of Spar’s own products are halaal.
“Since we shared this information on our Facebook pages, many Christians have expressed that they feel betrayed by Spar since they did not disclose the halaal status of their products on the packages. Many Christians that oppose halaal trade have been buying from Spar because they seemed to be non-halaal,” said Kiroglu.
Gateway News asked Spar for comment. Mike Prentice, Group Marketing Executive, said that no Spar-branded products are religiously certified and that it does not pay any money to Muslims or any other religious group in connection with its products.
“We are a retailer of groceries. We believe that people must be given choice and that it is not for us to dictate on religious certification,” he said.
He said that the products listed on the Spar website alongside the “halaal” and “kosher” designations are all products that do not require any religious certification. The information is provided on the website simply to reassure customers that those products are exempt from religious restrictions.
Informed of Spar’s response, Kiroglu said: “That is hopeful news for many Christians.” He said he would post the news on the Egeiro and Christian Friendly websites.
