A lot of things these days... because it broadens their sales. Some people will only buy products if they are certified Halal, so putting that logo on almost everything will help sales
but isnt halal bad? .. i mean like .. isnt it animal products?
Funny coincidence, I was talking about this tonight with some friends at work, who are Muslims.
In a nutshell, "halal" means that which is "permitted" for Muslims, as opposed to that which is forbidden, or "haram".
Not all halal foods are made from animals, eg. tahini (sesame seed butter) will often be labelled halal because it's a popular food in the Middle East, where most people are Muslims. But just because something isn't labelled halal, doesn't mean that Muslims can't eat it. There are lots of foods that would be halal, but which are not labelled as such, just like there are lots of vegan foods that aren't specifically labelled as vegan. The label is just there to help people identify more easily the foods they can eat according to their beliefs.
It's worth remembering that there are many different interpretations of Islam, and Muslims often disagree about what is permitted, and under what conditions (eg. polygamy, homosexuality, alcohol, etc.) - that said, all forms of pig meat (ham, bacon, pork) are generally considered "haram" (forbidden), no matter how the meat is prepared (I think this is because of a specific reference to swine in the Koran). So you won't find bacon in the McDonalds burgers in Egypt, or elsewhere in the Middle East (including Israel, since Jews don't eat pig meat either).
Other animals may be eaten, but to be "halal" the animal must be blessed as it's being slaughtered. Also, the animal's blood should be drained so that it doesn't "poison" the meat - the worst practice is where a fully conscious animal's throat is slashed and it is left to bleed to death, but many halal abattoirs forbid this as being unnecessarily cruel, and will stun the animal first (of course this is arguably just as cruel).
There is nothing inherently more cruel about the way Muslims live, compared to Christians and other non-Muslims. People of all cultures have exactly the same capacity for both cruelty and compassion... including Buddhists, who are mostly vegetarian - many members of the Khmer Rouge who committed crimes against humanity in Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime were notionally Buddhists, likewise the predominantly Sinhalese government in Sri Lanka (most Sinhalese are also Buddhists) which has committed notorious war crimes and other atrocities against ethnic Tamils in recent times.
), and she was telling him about it.
