Halal Sanitised: Health and Science in a Globalised Religious Market

Abstract

This article examines the sanitisation of halal in the modern scientific world, that is, how Malays in London understand and practise halal as part of modern discourses of meat/stunning, health, nutrition, purity, food scares, science and excess. From being an Islamic injunction in the Koran and the Sunna, halal both evokes and is evoked by a whole range of discourses. In other words, this article captures how halal sits uneasily in and between a plethora of powerful scientific, religious and political discourses that often overlap.

Keywords

• halal
• London
• Malays
• Islam