‘The New Halal (And the Non-Muslims Who Love It)’
2007 May 9
With the mentality of ‘where there is a need, there is a profit’, companies are always quick to realise cultural needs, and transform them into products without any racial, ethnic or religious discrimination. For example, two McDonald’s restaurants in Melbourne, Australia have been targeting the Muslim consumers and offering halal food products. For the full story http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=1910_0_25_0_C
Your post reminded me of the work of the Franco-Algerian artist Kader Attia who explored the issue of the ‘halal’ label as a marketing tool in his 2004 installation ‘Hallal’ (http://www.paris-art.com/image_detail-18715.html) in which he invented a whole fake ‘hallal’ branded fashion boutique. It’s an interesting reflection on the relationship between forms of piety and global consumerism.