I think it is fair to say that Muslims are very sensitive about matters of halal (permissible) and haram (forbidden). At least that’s how it is in Malaysia; I don’t know about other places. There was this guy I first met at the Muslim prayer room at the George Sherman Union at BU. The next time I saw him was at a Burger King outlet ordering a burger that had bacon in it. I assure you, it was not the turkey variety. He sat down, put the bacon away with his fingers, and went on to eat the burger while having a lively conversation with a friend about the existence of God. No, I am definitely not making this all up!
Here in Malaysia, however, I would even dare say that we are so obsessed over the legal aspects of the religion, such that our understanding and practice of Islam has been pretty much reduced just to looking out for what is halal and what is haram. So we respond quickly to slightest rumor that a particular product is not halal, even when it has been previously certified as halal by the authorities. Take the recent example about a certain popular brand of sardines. People were quick to boycott the product based on some rumor spread over the internet that it contained haram frog parts.
On the other hand, we have cigarettes declared as haram by fatwa councils at the federal level and several states, as well as many eminent international scholars, we choose to ignore. I was going for ironic, but I haven’t quite fully understood the meaning of the word, so I’m going with funny. Funny that we are so quick to believe and act upon some anonymous, baseless rumor but casually ignore authoritative legal opinions of recognized experts.
And we wonder why everything’s all screwed up...
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