Stop Spreading Wrong Information About Halal Restaurants in Japan

During the past few days, we decided to call several Halal restaurants and other Halal makers to verify the halal ingredients of their halal servings and the dishes and products they offer to their Muslim customers in Japan. However, surprisingly, most of the restaurants we had called said that they were not offering any halal dishes to their Muslim clients.

The reason we had called these restaurants was that they had been listed by Halal Media Japan as “Halal” on their sites. The company even listed the names of these restaurants in the Muslim Friendly maps they have been publishing for the past few years.

One of Osaka based restaurants listed by HMJ on their sister website told us that they we serving “Halal pork” to their customers. That was shocking to me. How come a person or an organization could term a restaurant halal if they were serving “Halal pork”.  The restaurant told me that the reason they termed pork as Halal was that they were using salad oil to prepare their pork dishes. That is disgusting and TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE to any Muslim no matter which country they come from.

To make the matters worse, many of these restaurant owners  did not know what Halal is and how they could serve to any potential Muslim guests.  The folks from halal Media Japan do not seem to have even a basic understanding of what Halal is and how important it is for Muslims to eat halal. For HMJ, it is just a business like any other business.  So, they treat the concept of Halal very lightly.

We, the Muslims have to stop this nonsense going on in Japan. This company has been spreading misinformation about Muslim friendly places for too long now.  As the time for Tokyo Olympics 2020 has been approaching fast and more and Muslim visitors have been visiting Japan, we need to stop the information about Halal which is faulty in every sense of the word. It misleads lot of Muslims. It is especially harmful to the Muslims who do not know the Japanese language or do not ask about the ingredients in detail.

We strongly urge all the Muslims living in Japan and the Muslim tourists coming from other countries to stop using halal restaurants recommended by this company. If it is difficult, at least, you should confirm throorughly what Halal ingredients they were using and from they source these ingredients.

Please bear in mind we do not have any personal issues to score against Halal Media Japan. But, they have to stop misguiding Muslims by offering information which, quite often, leads to embarrassment and regret. Please spread this important information to all your loved ones who care about the authenticity of Halal ingredients while eating.