This article is an analysis of the development of halal consumption in South Africa. Research on the contemporary consumption of halal has argued for an articulation of Muslim identity in a variety of settings. What evades these scholarly analyses is the production of halal as a commodity. How is it that halal consumption, as defined by Islamic dietary law, has been produced into a separately identifiable product? This paper argues that in South Africa the production of certified halal has been produced through an extensive campaign that identified the power of the Muslim consumer, consumption as an Islamic imperative, and the contemporary risks to halal presented by food technology and cross-contamination. Communicating with the Muslim consumer and identifying risks to halal consumption established a particular form of halal-certification expertise. The result was an increase in the visibility of halal and the establishment of halal-certification organizations as necessary intermediaries for the proper practice of halal. In the process taqwa was recalibrated to mean vigilance against uncertified consumption as the inspection of a halal label was introduced into the determination of halal.
Halal certification introduces a new discursive and material basis for the regulation of Muslim consumption in a world of global trade and complex food technology. Through chemical tests and state of the art supply chain management the halal certification industry aims to replace the necessity of intra-Muslim trade for the practice of halal. This paper presents the approach of two competing halal certification organizations in South Africa in interaction with Muslim businesses. It argues that the aim of the halal certification industry to standardize, trace and trade in halal is limited by the communal practice of halal that emphasizes intra-Muslim trade and exchange. Halal certification is an incomplete recalibration of halal. Attention to Muslim business practices illuminates the limitation of audit cultures to the practice of halal, offering a view of the complexity of halal in practice.
The production, consumption, and distribution of food is central to many religious practices and often considered distinct from the capitalist imperative to market, commodify, and profit. Yet, even scholarship that overcomes the now outdated binary of morality or religion versus the immoral market, continues to represent religion as a distinct sphere of life, with a moral content contrasted or compared to market practice. It is considered an achievement to note how religious practice exhibits affinities with market developments. There is little recognition of how religions as discursive traditions are inseparable from questions of consumption, trade, and exchange, which render the very distinction of religion versus market as an obstruction to analysis. Through an ethnography of the narratives and material practices of two Muslim-owned restaurants in the old Muslim quarters of South Mumbai, I show how different calibrations of Islam are materialized in restaurant spaces and trade practices in the city. Within the context of increasing marginalization of Muslim bodies and food practice in Mumbai, I argue that the restaurants constitute a complex and differential moral economy of food, poverty, care, and aspiration.
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