Jon Bellamy spoke with the Barnabas Fund

Unfortunately, what we are finding nowadays is that there's more and more halal food just in mainstream supermarkets, restaurants, fast food chains, all sorts of places. It's surprising how much food is halal. New Zealand, for example, which is not obviously a country with a very significant Muslim population, they have a large percentage of halal food. Of course that might be linked to the fact that a lot of the food is exported. We also find the same sort of thing in African countries. Uganda is one that I know in particular where most of the meat, if not all of it, is halal and to a certain extent Muslims have a monopoly over the butcher's business.

Jonathan: Why do you think it's not that obvious to us, because you mention that it's in a lot of supermarkets?

Mark: Well yes, it's actually quite curious. Of course, where you've got significant Muslim populations there will be a lot of labelling of halal food because of course the consumers there want to know that the food has been prepared within the parameters of their religious rules. Elsewhere it seems to be much more an issue of halal by stealth, pushing halal goods and services, because of course we are not just talking about meat, we are talking about a wider variety of goods and services. Meat is the thin edge of the wedge. It seems to be an issue of not labelling elsewhere because of course the general population might react against halal and seek something rather different.

Jonathan: Is the reasoning for that stealth primarily economic?

Mark: To a certain extent there might be economic factors and I would imagine some consumers would shy away from halal meat because of issues of animal cruelty. Others might shy away for other reasons and certainly I think there are significant reasons why Christians would perhaps not want to eat halal food. Not necessarily theological or spiritual reasons but much more a variety of other reasons. At Operation Nehemiah we are not opposed to religious groups having access to goods and services appropriate to their religion, but there are lot of issues to do with halal, to do with trying to push Islamic products onto the general population. Very often this is viewed as Islamic mission intending to islamise society in general. There are economic issues when you buy halal food. Halal meat certification comes from Islamic authority and so there are costs involved there and if a portion of consumers money is going off to an Islamic agency you could well be funding Islamic mission, Islamic education, mosque building, or a wide variety of things that maybe the consumer does not want to finance.

Jonathan: So you've set up this campaign, Operation Nehemiah. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Mark: Operation Nehemiah is really addressing issues of marginalisation and discrimination against Christians in the UK. This is becoming a bit of a hot topic. There was a report out by an Austrian NGO cataloguing a wide range of anti-Christian discrimination in Europe and the United States over the last five years. The focus of Operation Nehemiah is a little bit more on the islamisation of society to do with Sharia law, discrimination against Christians, persecution of converts; people who leave Islam for Christianity in the UK and the persecution they can experience. Because of our expertise on issues of Islam, Operation Nehemiah has a much stronger focus on these types of issues where they impact Christians in this country and other countries.

Jonathan: What is the actual issue that you are trying to put to the Government?

Mark: We are requesting that labelling should clearly indicate whether the food has been ritually slaughtered and whether it's been stunned or not, because that's an issue of how animals are treated in abattoirs. It's basically asking for a level playing field and for clear labelling so that consumers have a choice.

Jonathan: This has been hidden for quite a while, but more recently it's started to become a little bit more high profile, it's been in many newspapers. I also noticed it on the One Show a little while ago. Out of that, do you have any early indication of the government's perspective on it? Do they see that this is an issue?

Mark: It's a bit difficult to tell, although interestingly there was a bit of an uproar in the House of Commons last year when they discovered that some of the restaurants in Parliament were serving halal food without there being any indication or any labelling or notification. I think MPs are probably fairly aware of the issue. Whether it's likely to filter through to the Ministerial levels, we are not sure yet. We are hoping that pressure and a lot of interest in this issue will produce a bit of a move in Government. There is also some legislation going through at a European level.

Jonathan: If people want to find out more about Operation Nehemiah and maybe sign up to the online petition where do they go?

Mark: They can go to our website at www.barnabasfund.org. That website is about the general work of Barnabas Fund. We support the persecuted church around the world. There is specific section there on Operation Nehemiah and they can enter that section and look at a wide range of issues that we're addressing, not just of course halal food but many others.