MALAYSIA: Fatwa council to decide on Halal Beer

The National Fatwa Council is to decide on whether a beer branded as Halal being sold in the country is permissible.

Principal assistant director of the dakwah division of Jakim, the Islamic Development Department, Mat Ali Sarbini, said the beer is regarded as illicit until and unless the council rules otherwise.

He said that samples of the beer were with a university laboratory to be analysed.

There was no decision yet because the contents of the beer were still being investigated by the laboratory which had a long queue to attend to, Mat Ali told reporters after representing Jakim director general Othman Mustapha at the opening of the general meeting of the Malaysian Association for the Blind here.

The "Halal beer" issue arose after a newspaper reported on May 28 that the bottled drink was increasingly popular among Muslims in Johor, and this was noticed by the State Islamic Affairs Department.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom was reported the following day as saying that Muslims must not consume the drink because it contained 0.5 per cent alcohol while the National Fatwa Council allowed only 0.01 per cent.

The "Halal beer" is imported from a Middle East country and sold here for RM3 to RM5 a bottle. -- BERNAMA