Unless you have been involved in deep space exploration you would be aware of the massive raids on houses across NSW and Qld in relation to alleged terrorist plots and alleged links to terrorism.
It is fair to say that this type of event brings out the nutters on both sides of the fence, and authorities have stated that they are on alert for any information regarding any sort of threat to public safety from either Islamic extremists or right-wing extremists.
Call me a cynic, but I have a tendency to think that there may be a little less emphasis on looking into the right-wing side of things.
It is fair to say that the last thing that is needed at a time like this are imbeciles and idiots going out of their way to cause trouble. This type of trouble could be the alleged inciting of a race riot on radio, or the deliberate attempts to insult and offend every Muslim in the country by referring to the Prophet Muhammad as a paedophile during a radio programme.
Politicians seeking to link these raids to peddle their own agenda’s should also be disciplined.
Note burqa wearers in some of the houses raided this morning? This shroud of oppression and flag of fundamentalism is not right in Aust
— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi) September 17, 2014
Why does Cory Bernardi care what people are wearing in their own homes anyway?
It is also fair to say that one of the last things this country needs is the ridiculous anti-Islamic chain mails that do the rounds via email and social media.
These chain mails are designed to spread fear and hate and my view is that the authors of such propaganda should in my view face the same penalties as an extremist whipping up hatred against the west.
Some of the features of these chain mails are usually complete falsehoods, bad grammar and idiotic logic, something that says a lot regarding the IQ levels of those who both sprout this rubbish and those who are sucked in by it.
Recently I received another shining example of one of these chain letters that I thought I’d share with you.
The full version is available via the below link, but I will highlight some of the main parts and give the facts or my views on them.
A Warning From Dick Smith Chain Mail
Firstly the letter claims to be a warning from Dick Smith.
I approached a media spokesperson Dick Smith the retailer who was unaware of the chain letter and said that the statements had not come from them, however they do not speak for Dick Smith the person. Dick Smith has nothing to do with the retailer other than the use of his name.
Dick Smith the man was not approached for comment.
I will start at the beginning of the chain letter.
“You may be aware that “Dick Smith” chain franchise stores are being pressured by the Islamic Council of Australia to gain ‘Halal Certification’ otherwise they will be proscribed and banned from Muslim custom. This is their response:”
A couple of things about Dick Smith stores, they are not franchised and they do not sell food.
Halal certification is something that applies to food but does not apply to electrical products which is what Dick Smith is a retailer of, thus making this statement ridiculous.
As Dick Smiths media spokesperson stated they made no response whatsoever.
“We at Dick Smith’s have received a number of letters from people asking if we will be putting the Muslim Halal logo on our food.
To acquire Halal certification, payment is required to the endorsing body (the Islamic Council) and involves a number of site inspections of both our growers and processors in order to ensure that our practices comply with the conditions of Halal certification.”
As we all know, Dick Smith retailers do not sell food at all, therefore would not need to apply for Halal certification.
Dick Smith Foods are a completely separate company to the retailer Dick Smith, and Dick Smith Foods do not have their own retail outlets to be banned from Muslim custom.
The symbol upsetting rednecks racists and fools all over the country
At the start of what the author claims to be “A Message From Dick Smith” it says “We at Dick Smith’s…” If it were indeed a true statement it would read “We at Dick Smith” or “we at Dick Smith Foods”, I cannot see someone getting their company name wrong as branding is extremely important and something that a lot of money is spent on.
The part that appears to be the last thing being claimed to have been said by Dick Smith says;
“We point out that we have never been asked to put a Christian symbol (or any other religious symbol) on our food requiring that we send money to a Christian organisation for the right to do so.”
As I said Dick Smith have denied having anything to do with this.
I can also see no reason whatsoever that they would say something like above that brings Christian organisations into the debate unprovoked. In fact Dick Smith Foods I would suggest would go out of their way to avoid such a debate or offend anyone. They are an organisation that donates large amounts of money to charity.
The author then continues
“Others would add that money paid to ANY Muslim ‘organisation’ (and you had better believe it: these people ARE ‘organised’) can easily find its way into the hands of Islamic extremist-fanatics and murderers, irrespective of assurances to the contrary.”
This ridiculous statement is clearly designed to label all Muslims as linked to murderers and fanatics and is no different to saying all Christians are linked to paedophile rings and that money donated to Christian organisations supports the moving of paedophiles from parish to parish to avoid arrest and to support the legal efforts of church lawyers in trying to cause victims of child abuse further mental damage and trying to ensure that they are not compensated for the abuse they suffered.
The letter then goes on to with ridiculous opinionated linking the Halal certification to the price of products from companies such as Cadbury, Nestle and Kraft.
It also makes the bold statement that by buying these companies products that you are “subsidizing Islam”.
There is also the usual scare campaign regular feature referring to Sharia law, which is apparently coming to Australia we are always hearing. Probably around the same time as the imminent Zombie Apocalypse.
This type of material does nobody any favours at all, and can only heighten the risk of conflict within our own country.
As a country we need to expose the people who promote this kind of material and hold them to account for their actions. These are people who use lies to promote the hatred of others who seek to live peacefully in our multicultural society.
They are truly reprehensible fools.
Like Wixxyleaks on Facebook here
For All Your Video Production Needs
Follow @madwixxy
When Qantas started serving Halal food, some ignoratnt (and probably more than ignorant) person commenetd that “As a Christian, I cannot eat Halal food”
I am not making this up.
I look forward to the Abbott/AFP presser on this to reassure and remonstrate and raise the fear level with the afterword ‘go about your daily lives’.
Cadbury…$16 million from Abbott? Not only rednecks (IQ<90) received on e-mail from a MBBS FRANZCP friend who has been under pressure for years to sell up to middle eastern dominated council…sell house for apartments (Parramatta/Granville)!
Actually quotes 2 and 3 are directly from the dick Smith website
http://www.dicksmithfoods.com.au/media/news/halal-certification-our-food
I just checked again and it has been edited since last week when I looked after a “friend” posted this chainmail on fb.
Halal Certification on Our Food
We have received a number of letters from people asking if we will be putting the Muslim Halal logo on our food.
To acquire Halal certification, payment is required to the endorsing body and involves a number of site inspections of both our growers and processors in order to ensure that our practices comply with the conditions of Halal certification. It is important to note that this does not reflect the quality of the food being processed or sold – it only means that the products are approved as being prepared in accordance with the traditions of the Muslim faith.
We are aware of an increasing number of large companies both in Australia and overseas, such as Kraft and Cadbury, who have obtained accreditation to use the Halal logo. We don’t believe they have done this because of any religious commitment but rather for purely commercial reasons. Perhaps these large organisations can afford to do this. While we have a choice however, we would prefer to avoid unnecessarily increasing the cost of our products in order to pay for Halal accreditation when this money would be better spent continuing to support important charitable causes where assistance is greatly needed.
Return to News
This what it REALLY says on the Dick Smith Foods website!!info@
I guess the original poster too poetic licence with the actual, pretty much as you have with his….
Obviously the writer of this article didn’t perform enough research on this topic and should go visit Q Society that actually have done proper research HALAL Certification is a money grabbing scam by Islam and it is in no way a requirement whatsoever as all any Islamic needs to do to make food halal (Except forbidden foods Pork/Alcohol) is say Bismallah and then they can eat and that is in the Quran from Muhammed. Maybe you should look into things more before going off half cocked.
As for living peacefully there is not a single part of Sharia law that meshes with Western society or cultures, they refuse to integrate and refer to non Islamic’s with derogatory terms when they are in a non Islamic country.
Whatever the reasons there is still no sense in using this to promote hate against people of any religion
For example you need to pay Phillips to use the Compact Disc logo, or Apple to use the made for iPod logo, but we don’t see the chain mails for this…
Yes, I thought it would be odd for them to not get their company name right
What’s not to understand. His company is a charity. To have to pay someone to buy his products effects the price & thus effect it’s saleability, thus he prefers the money to go to charity.
If companies want to be blackmailed into attracting business, what’s the problem. They do a lot worse in business.
Of course coming out of the closet & putting all the Halal products in the one spot would be a good option so that Muslim didn’t have to go through all the different brands but we know that with a Muslim population of around 2.2% it’s better not to “discriminate”, mix them up for people who haven’t got time to check for the logo. “Catch the passing trade” as they say.
On what basis is Mohammed not a pedophile?
Lets check the source, shall we?
http://www.dicksmithfoods.com.au/media/news/halal-certification-our-food
Well, looks legit to me…
Dick Smith Electronics is not controlled by Dick Smith – he sold that business years ago. But he does have a Dick Smith food business. I will not buy, if I can avoid it, either kosher approved food, or halal approved food when a fee has to be paid for that approval. I also know people from Islamic backgrounds who enoy the occaisional drink or the crustacean. Maybe you shouid,start with your own community first.
So, suck it up.
I don’t want to eat food that has been offered to idols, or blessed by anyone with any religious affiliation other than my own, or approved under a paid religious certification. I will not support either halal, or kosher, or any other certification.
Somewhat added to and distorted
That question is irrelevant as far as I’m concerned.
I am an atheist so I don’t really care what someone did centuries ago.
All I know is that saying something for no other reason other than to deliberately cause offence to a large group of people does not a decent person make…
@ jay neska ebert “Certification is a money grabbing scam” pretty much like the heart foundation, cancer council, breast cancer etc you don’t need to be a heart surgeon or an oncologist to use their logos but you do need to pay. So the certifying body for halal is not on it’s own.
You cant blame companies buying the certification either, given that it alerts followers of Islam that they can be secure in the knowledge that the food will not offend their beliefs. As peter states the whole thing is irrelevant, Islam, Judaism and Christianity are all abrahamic faiths. People seem to forget that Muslims are also condemning the actions of terrorists.
When it comes down to women wearing headgear worn only by them because of religious beliefs, I don’t ever recall there being an outcry over catholic or Anglican nuns wearing headgear and veils, so whats’s the difference?
When it comes down to women wearing headgear worn only by them because of religious beliefs, I don’t ever recall there being an outcry over catholic or Anglican nuns wearing headgear and veils, so whats’s the difference?
If you don’t know I doubt anybody could explain it you..All muslims that practice Islam and sharia law should go back to their own country..What they do there is of no concern to me…What they say and do in my country is of great concern to me..20years ago I never had to worry about terrorism or being beheaded by a lunatic bunch of Islamic idiots..I say they should all be ground up for fertilizer..and the rest should only be allowed to stay as long as they only eat bacon…I don’t want them in my country..I am Canadian..
All you bleeding hearts, you are enablers for them, NOTHING compares to Islam, their schools ,their mosques, their food, their law? Their way OR they pull the racist card. If this countrys not good enough as it is, well F%#KOFF, imagine if westerners pulled this crap in their country! More beheadings? Get Ur head out of the sand b4 it’s too late!
Bill you might want to re-read some history books, there has never been a killer like Christianity when it comes to organised religions…
Bill you are complaining about this country being multicultural, as it is, and has been for a long time so perhaps if there is any f**king off to be done you should be leading by example.
If Westerners pulled this crap in their country? The west constantly pulls this crap in other counties, particularly where there is oil and after we bomb them senseless and kill their families in the hundreds of thousands we wonder why they don’t like us?
We can’t have our heads in the sand Bill, yours is taking up all the room…
Halal certification is like gluten-free, low fat or sugar-free – a marketing tool used by manufacturers to increase sales by broadening their market.
There used to be a group who had the same arguments against Kosher certification in the USA. They were the Christian Buyers and Voters League, and their spokesman was announcer Wally Butterworth.
They were also a front for the KKK – same arguments, same motives and if you swap Jew for Muslim – probably many of the same people involved.
Butterworth’s re-discovered recordings can be found on line.
o.k. lets cool dowm a bit. are we from the same planet??? are we human beeings???
do we have to eat ad drink??? because if you are from another planet you don’t have to do that.
are you black??? are you white??? are you red ??? are you yellow???
because if you are nothing like this, you are not form this planet.
now lets get this over,your religion whatever it is does not, has never existed.
you have been brainwashed by some political morons to use you for theyr purpose.
the goverments of this world are the biggest liars known to stupid people like you.
get your shit together and form your own opinion of live and common sense in general.
if you haven’t got this basic intelligence,do us all a favour and just go and die some where were it doesn’t upset anybody. because you are just not worthy living on this planet..
Stumbled across this page and read all the comments. Halal certification is used for all sorts of products not just food. In Australia each mosque can grant a halal logo after inspections etc, the main body is Halal Australia. They pay a certain amount to MIU in Indonesia (the governing body for this region).
Halal certification also works down the food line, for example a farmer can get certified, the aboitors gets certified and then the transport is certified. In europe one port (i cant remember which one) is also certified. One aboitor was quoted $27,000 to get his lil logo he consequently changed his mind which is the only reason we know about the cost. No one will tell you how much certification costs. I read yesterday even the plastic containers for milk were halal certified (before any halal milk goes in). What this means is a muslim needs to do the slaughter (discrimination) a truck driver needs to be muslim etc etc. to ensure the whole process is halal. Im not kidding you. All proceeds go to advancing Islam (as stated on one website)
Now the grief I have with this is a) those fees do raise prices of the goods b) the halal certification business is tax free. (religious organisation) c) Iam inadvertantly paying to advance Islam, a idiology Iam against.
Why am I against Islam? Shariah law is incompatible with our law and I believe in a secular legal system. Looking at other countries who have had an influx of Islamic refugees such as Denmark, Germany, Uk, USA, Sweden, Canada, Norway, France, Italy they are all experience extreme problems, there are no go zones in most of those countries where even the emergency services dont enter. Their budgets are being destroyed by welfare payments, rapes have increased dramaticaly and child sex abuse has become a major issue. Just this year alone Britain had 1400 cases in one area. Britain also has special police units just to deal with honour killings Girls in Norway and Sweden dye their hair black just so they dont get attention because of rapes. Tell me, is this how you want Australia to become? i DONT. Even if we say the majority of muslims are good people its irrelivant because the bad are so bad the good ones are tarred with the same brush.
Incidently, Mohammud did get engaged to aisha when she was 6, married her at 9. Muslims will say that was the norm for most of europe as well, however everthing I read going back 1200 years suggest 12 years for a girl to be married so was he a pedophile, probably. Another thing you might want to think about is ALL Muslims do follow shariah law, (obviously not to the full hand chopping etc in the west) and under that law a percentage of alms must go towards jihad.
I have found if you ever want to know a religion better, look up people who have left it. This goes for mormons, scientolgy, muslims etc then you will get a better understanding.
It is only possible to tell what a religion/political movement are REALLY like when they have sufficient numbers/influence to exercise power, particularly in government.
Take a look around the world and think about it.
What is so hard to understand ?
halal bottles and trucks? lol i never heard that or read it anywhere, probably worth sharing a genuine reference?
As an atheist I find the whole subject very interesting. As a vegetarian (for ethical reasons) I find the killing of animals unacceptable. I’m not interested in your religious reasons, I’m interested in the welfare and wellbeing of the animals.
I would agree with the general comments in relation to the religious intolerance most of this discussion is exposing. Just yesterday I was told by someone that they were a Christian and so couldn’t eat Halal food. I said “Well don’t!”. She commented that it was because Christian’s were required not to eat food that had been blessed or prepared in accordance with other religious beliefs. I told her this was the definition of religious bigotry.
I was then told by the same person that Kraft is paying $45, 000 per year for Halal certification. Another person told me today it was $250, 000 per year – I don’t know how much they’ll be paying by Friday!! 😉
I am. though, curious about the issue around certification. According to the Islamic Council of Western Australia:
http://www.islamiccouncilwa.com.au/halal-certification/halal-guidelines/
Halal Slaughter
The conditions required for Halal slaughter of animals and birds are:
The slaughterman must be a mature, pious Muslim of sound mind who understands fully the fundamentals and conditions relating to Halal slaughter and be approved by the religious authorities.
A commentator above noted the issue of employment. I initially thought they couldn’t be right, but this would appear to indicate this is a concern – though small numbers are involved admittedly.
Does anyone have any information about how this works in terms of employment in the industry and legislation regarding employment?
Again, from my perspective killing animals to eat them is not ethical and I support the RSPCA’s call to cease all practices which increase harm and suffering to animals:
http://kb.rspca.org.au/what-is-halal-slaughter-in-australia_116.html
Again, as an atheist, I consider religions unnecessary for (and frequently antithetical when wishing to move towards the development of) a positive, socially just community.
I’d like to add another site I’ve just read:
http://www.islamicconcern.com/feat-halalslaughter.asp
This points out that science (not religious belief) shows that stunning animals prior to killing them is perfectly within the boundaries of halal practices.
Very interesting.
http://www.dicksmithfoods.com.au/media/news/halal-certification-our-food
this is the dick smith foods website (so YES, dick smith DOES sell food products) and the above link is their official statement on the matter… (text cut and pasted below)
try doing some research, before you too, spout misleading information!
“We have received a number of letters from people asking if we will be putting the Muslim Halal logo on our food.
To acquire Halal certification, payment is required to the endorsing body and involves a number of site inspections of both our growers and processors in order to ensure that our practices comply with the conditions of Halal certification. It is important to note that this does not reflect the quality of the food being processed or sold – it only means that the products are approved as being prepared in accordance with the traditions of the Muslim faith.
We are aware of an increasing number of large companies both in Australia and overseas, such as Kraft and Cadbury, who have obtained accreditation to use the Halal logo. We don’t believe they have done this because of any religious commitment but rather for purely commercial reasons. Perhaps these large organisations can afford to do this. While we have a choice however, we would prefer to avoid unnecessarily increasing the cost of our products in order to pay for Halal accreditation when this money would be better spent continuing to support important charitable causes where assistance is greatly needed.”
To be fair the author of this article is merely pointing out that a lot of the stuff said in the Facebook post going around was not said by Dick Smith or the company, it is merely someone using the words from the Dick Smith website and adding their own commentary and, as such, misrepresenting Dick Smith and the company.
As someone who is looking for facts about the halal furore – I was sadly disappointed by the author’s hysterical, superficial assessment. I gleaned more in the comments section!
Halal certification is shrouded in secrecy and innuendo. It certainly appears that it raises very large sums of money for the operators. I feel it’s entirely legitimate to question this type of activity – and calling out those people who ask that those operating and participating in this arrangement, to account – calling them “fools” – begs questioning the author’s own capacity to observe and comment in a reasonable way.
Hysterics and slander dont advance the pursuit of knowledge.
I realise that some of the information posed by the following questions can be found, however, these are mostly from private, not official sources that can be relied upon.
Some questions:
How much money is being raised?
How many companies are involved?
Who are these companies?
What products are certified?
What products are labelled?
How much does certification cost?
How many halal certifiers operate in Australia?
Is it a commercial activity or deemed not-for-profit?
What products are not labelled – and why not?
What are the *costs* borne by the consumer?
Where is the money going?
Are halal operators audited?
Should participating companies divulge details of their involvement? If not – why not?
Do companies not certified still hold contracts in Muslim countries?
Do companies with certification enjoy export contracts otherwise disadvantaged?
Yes, what a fool believes… indeed.
My post titles are all song titles, and most of what was in that chain email was utter rubbish that only a fool would believe.
Unless of course you can tell me that Dick Smith Electronics stores are franchised and do sell groceries?
Why do we need items with halal certification. No such thing existed before 1983. It’s only a religious tax that is not needed.
Deceitful pack of dogs. The truth can be seen here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20130729125222/http://www.dicksmithfoods.com.au/media/news/muslim-branding-our-food
Who is the author of this piece?
Elvis
You think I’m silly, he’s dead hahaha. Just wondered because he/she is using names in the article but I can’t see an authors name, seems wrong to me
There is only one author on the site, details are on the About page of the site, or the Contact page
I didn’t think you were silly, I thought you were spam
Gutless, ball-less, muslim dick sucking bunch of liberal cucks. Hope you’re families are the first die from the next round of death cult attacks.
Hope you gave a pleasant evening too xx