Qingtongxia, China: The founder of Sai Wai Xiang Halal Foodstuff Co. does not follow Islam, but still sells more than $50 million-worth of food to Muslims across Asia and the Middle East.
The company is at the forefront of a Chinese drive into the global halal food and beverage market.
Businessman Deng Zhijun bills his wares as “products with Muslim ethnic flavor,” but has difficulty recalling some of Islam’s basic dietary tenets.
“Muslims definitely don’t smoke and don’t drink alcohol,” he said over a lunch at the company, in a garden lined with caged peacocks, macaws and chickens. “There’s also some kind of meat they don’t eat, but I forgot.”
His half-knowledge is typical of China’s complicated relationship with Islam, which officially has more than 23 million adherents in the country. Some independent estimates put it as high as 50 million — which would put China among the world’s top 10 Muslim nations.
Deng’s company is based in Ningxia, a western region a third of whose six million population are Hui. The group are a separate minority under Beijing’s classification policies even though most are essentially from the Han ethnic majority, differentiated only by being Muslims.
The global halal food and beverage market is projected to grow to $1.6 trillion by 2018, up from $1.1 trillion in 2013.
There are concerns over how strictly halal standards are followed in China.
Last year, hundred of Muslims took to the streets in Xi’an to protest the sale of alcohol in halal restaurants. In Qinghai province a crowd destroyed a bakery after pork sausages and ham were found in its delivery trucks.
Such fears have an impact in potential export markets, and food safety scares are common in China, from gutter oil to milk powder.
The integrity of Chinese halal food was “questionable,” Miriam Abdul Latif, a professor of food science and a halal expert at the Malaysian University of Sabah, told AFP, citing examples of “fake halal documents or certificates.”
To build consumer trust, Latif said, Chinese companies should have their products inspected by certification bodies from Muslim countries.
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Islam alien to Chinese halal meat magnate
Islam alien to Chinese halal meat magnate
More than 150 Palestinians were held on a plane for around 12 hours in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG: South African authorities faced heavy criticism Friday after they held more than 150 Palestinians, including a woman who is nine months pregnant, on a plane for around 12 hours due to complications with their travel documents.
A pastor who was allowed to meet with the passengers while they were still stuck on the plane said it was very extremely and that children were screaming and crying.
The Palestinians landed on a charter plane at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport on Thursday morning after a stopover in Nairobi, Kenya, South Africa’s Border Management Authority said in a statement.
The Palestinian passengers did not have exit stamps from Israeli authorities, did not indicate how long they would be staying in South Africa and had not given local addresses, leading immigration authorities to deny them entry, the statement said.
The 153 passengers including families and children were allowed to leave the plane on Thursday night after South Africa’s Ministry of Home Affairs intervened and a local non-governmental organization called Gift of the Givers offered to accommodate them. The Border Management Authority said 23 passengers had since traveled on to other countries, leaving 130 in South Africa.
Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman said it was the second plane carrying Palestinians to land in South Africa in the last two weeks and that the passengers themselves did not know where they were going. He said both planes were believed to be carrying people from war-torn Gaza.
It was not immediately clear who organized the charter plane.
A South African pastor who was given access to the plane while it was on the tarmac told national broadcaster SABC that many of the Palestinians now intended to claim asylum in South Africa.
South Africa has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and the treatment of the travelers has sparked anger.
“It’s dire,” Nigel Branken, the pastor, said in an interview with SABC on Thursday from the plane as he described the conditions. “When I came onto the plane it was excruciatingly hot. There were lots of children just sweating and screaming and crying.”
“I do not believe this is what South Africa is about. South Africa should be letting these people into the airport at the very least and letting them apply for asylum. This is their basic fundamental right guaranteed in our constitution.”
A pastor who was allowed to meet with the passengers while they were still stuck on the plane said it was very extremely and that children were screaming and crying.
The Palestinians landed on a charter plane at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport on Thursday morning after a stopover in Nairobi, Kenya, South Africa’s Border Management Authority said in a statement.
The Palestinian passengers did not have exit stamps from Israeli authorities, did not indicate how long they would be staying in South Africa and had not given local addresses, leading immigration authorities to deny them entry, the statement said.
The 153 passengers including families and children were allowed to leave the plane on Thursday night after South Africa’s Ministry of Home Affairs intervened and a local non-governmental organization called Gift of the Givers offered to accommodate them. The Border Management Authority said 23 passengers had since traveled on to other countries, leaving 130 in South Africa.
Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman said it was the second plane carrying Palestinians to land in South Africa in the last two weeks and that the passengers themselves did not know where they were going. He said both planes were believed to be carrying people from war-torn Gaza.
It was not immediately clear who organized the charter plane.
A South African pastor who was given access to the plane while it was on the tarmac told national broadcaster SABC that many of the Palestinians now intended to claim asylum in South Africa.
South Africa has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and the treatment of the travelers has sparked anger.
“It’s dire,” Nigel Branken, the pastor, said in an interview with SABC on Thursday from the plane as he described the conditions. “When I came onto the plane it was excruciatingly hot. There were lots of children just sweating and screaming and crying.”
“I do not believe this is what South Africa is about. South Africa should be letting these people into the airport at the very least and letting them apply for asylum. This is their basic fundamental right guaranteed in our constitution.”
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