MIM: Muslim Industrialists & Manufacturers—A Platform for Muslim-to-Muslim Businesses Without the Need of Halal Certification

Abstract

This paper outlines a new and innovative way of conducting businesses among Muslims who are in the halal industry worldwide and who are either manufacturing halal products (food, beverages, cosmetics, and medical pharmaceuticals) or are in the halal food service industry (fast food, fine dining restaurants, and mass catering) or providing shariah-compliant services (finance, education and training, health, tourism, legal counsel, logistics, fashion and lifestyle, media and entertainment, etc). This innovation was first introduced by the first author in MIHAS 2014. For many decades beginning with Malaysia’s successful JAKIM halal certification program introduced in 1990s, businesses that involve halal products and services have been regulated and controlled by the halal certification and auditing system established by respective government or local Muslim Association authorities and this practice is well accepted by Muslims and non-Muslims in countries that have either majority or minority Muslim population. In recent years many Muslim countries such as UAE, Pakistan, and Indonesia are slowly introducing their own halal logos of which halal certification has to be legally applied by manufacturers who want to export halal products or services to these countries. The resulting global scenario with different halal certification logos and systems is not a financial encouragement to the manufacturing sector who will no doubt need to spend more on different legal halal certification requirements in different countries. Furthermore, the many halal logos by different countries will only add to the confusion for Muslim consumers worldwide. To address this forthcoming problem, an association of Muslim professionals and businessmen in the above industry is formalized using the acronym MIM which stands for Muslim Industrialists & Manufacturers and the members of this organization are given formal recognition as the legal owners of businesses who are Muslims by faith. We believe that Muslim business owners who are recognized under such an association may conduct business transactions to other businesses and consumers and customers who desire halal products or shariah-compliant services from these Muslims without the need of halal certification based on the fact that the business owners are of the Muslim faith.