From left: Manila Hotel General Manager Leon Keekstra; Manila Hotel President Atty. Marcelo S. Ele, Jr. ; NCMF Bureau Director Tahir Sinsuat Lidasan, Jr., CESO III; and Department of Tourism’s Lead Person for the Halal Program Shalimar H. Tamano.

Mention the word halal (an Arabic term which means permissible and legal) to average Filipinos and they would be apprehensive, even hesitant to even touch it with a ten-foot-long pole. Due to historical, political, religious, and cultural reasons associated with it, many people still don’t understand halal.

The common misconceptions are: the term merely refers to Muslim food, that halal food and products are exclusively for Muslims. This means that if a non-Muslim patronizes halal, they will be converted to Muslim beliefs.  And there’s the false impression that halal food can just be produced and carried out by Muslim-owned manufacturer and industries, and that Imams are the only ones who can issue Halal Certification.

Halal and Haraam

To deter some apprehensions about it, halal is basically like the normal everyday food and products that we use, only that it strictly follows the principles of Qur’an (the Holy Book of Islam).

Halal is primarily used to describe anything – from human behavior (conduct and manner), speech, clothing, and food – that is acceptable under the Islamic law as opposed to the haraam, which means bad, harmful, and unacceptable.

Muslims are, in essence, allowed to eat anything that is “good,” meaning pure, clean, and something that is ‘nourishing’ to the body. They can principally eat and utilize everything, except for those that have been specified as haraam.

As outlined in their Qur’an, they must abstain from eating certain food deemed harmful for human consumption. These include any food sourced from animals which are slaughtered in the name of other gods or anyone but Allah, and those which are strangled, beaten, and savagely killed.

Forbidden food items for them include shellfish (because they are considered the lowest in the marine food chain and may contain large amount of toxic chemicals such as mercury and lead), blood (because it may contain bio-toxins), animal flesh (pork particularly), fats, and gelatin as well as alcohol and other intoxicants.

The act of Dhabiha

The proper and acceptable way of slaughtering animals, called Dhabiha or Thabiha, is an important principle of Halal. The ritual is made with a swift, deep incision of a sharp knife on an animal’s neck, while reciting the name of Allah.

“The jugular veins and carotid arteries must be removed, but leave the spinal cord intact. The esophagus should also be removed. The blood must be totally drained,” said chef Abdulatif Sangcopan, the halal chef consultant of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF).

The ritual is done to acknowledge the sacredness of life, that a person should only kill with God’s permission and only to meet the body’s need for food. The meat product from the ritual is often called zabihah, or simply halal meat. Most Muslims will not eat meat if they are uncertain of how it was slaughtered.

Their rule: “If the source was a forbidden food, then it is forbidden. If you have doubt about where the meat or food is sourced, don’t eat.” Their halal food and products must come from companies and manufacturers that have Halal Compliance Certificate.

Halal for Muslim Tourists

In the Philippines, there are about 5,000 halal products, produced, manufactured, and sold by over 300 Halal certified companies, including the historical Manila Hotel which has become the first halal compliant hotel in the Philippines.

The Grand Dame has made another history as the NCMF awarded the halal compliance certificate recently. This means the hotel will be able to serve fully the Muslim consumers and tourists, adequately and sufficiently meeting their demands based on the principles that govern halal.

With the global Muslim consumer base estimated at 1.8 billion spread to over 100 countries, it is not surprising that the Department of Tourism is so predisposed to raise the tourism awareness in the Middle East and other Muslim countries.

“For the past years, we are trying to tap the Middle East and Muslim tourists to come and visit the Philippines. That’s quite a big market. But whenever we proposed it, they would ask if there is halal food in the country. Our campaign in the Muslim countries will be for naught if we don’t have halal food to offer them,” said Department of Tourism Special Concerns director Shalimar Hofer Tamano.