Tuesday, July 13, 2010

To The Core

Everytime there is a problem with Muslims being opressed, there would be calls for us to boycott whatever that is produced by the Jewish companies or the Americans. Be it milk, toothpaste to electronic items. Sure, we can boycott, then they have less buyers, then their profits would crumble.


Then what?

It is actually about the economic problem and how it is problematic when we associate it with religion without actually knowing how to.

How many of you have been to the markets and people would try to sell you halal toothpaste, with a big halal wording on the toothpaste, giving it the Arabic look, with a hope that you would buy it? Or maybe when they try to sell you an eye-healing device, give it some Arabic wordings, then sell it to the masses. This is what we call, ladies and gentlemen, selling the religion itself. These people are actually selling something by associating it to the religion as they hope gullible buyer would succumb into the tactic as they are supporting something that actually promotes the religion.

As many of you would know, there are many brands that are actually associated with Jewish companies that whenever there is a boycott, these brands are the one targeted first. But let's wait for a while. How did the brands promote themselves? Did they put some Yiddish words on the cover, promoting for the Jewish people to buy it? No, they did not. They promoted it just like what other brands that are not associated with the Jewish companies did in promoting their stuffs. It is on a level playing field. Whereas here in Malaysia, we even put a halal logo on a toothpaste, which is in a way, trying to secure the market in the Muslim segment. I think that is like a cheap shot in a boxing match. If you want to promote your stuffs and they have a good quality, no matter whether you put a halal logo on it or not, they would still sell. So in a way, we are compromising ourselves economically. By playing on a level field, we will motivate and push ourselves to do better instead of just relying on a sure, tapped market.

A Muslim who is a businessman bought a very well known franchise which actually originated from the USA. He is on hold of the franchise business here in Malaysia. Suffice to say, he is like the owner of the franchise here. So one day, he was asked by an audience during a talk, why did he buy a company, which originated from the USA, which all of us know, are allied to the Israel? He just smiled, and answered,

" The problem here is not where the business comes from. Why do you keep on thinking where it came from? The problem here is we must think on how to conquer the business that is started there. This is just a start. Maybe one day, I will own the biggest shares for the worldwide franchise."

I have to rephrase the sentences, but you got the main point there, right? So what he is trying to say here, we should not really think where the business comes from, how long would the boycott lasts and everything. That is not the main concern here. What we should really think of is how we can improve ourselves and be better instead of just boycotting without any real solution to it.

Oh, and maybe not to sell our religion by using the mambo jumbo crap trick.

5 comments:

  1. i like this piece..
    da lame nak cakap but u said it right!
    good job!
    keep it coming! ;)

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  2. I still boycott McD till now and I think "selling religion" is not a bad thing to do in an 'islamic' country like ours, where most of the hotels still serving non-halal food and don't have HALAL certification, where wine and alcohol sold openly in many shops.

    But, i can't agree more to the businessman's saying coz i know who he is and also make him my idol. =)

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  3. you have to differentiate what i have stated above.selling the religion there refers to when we sell something like an eye healing device and we put some Islamic words to it just to get people to buy it when obviously it is obnoxious.i didnt say anything about having halal food or anything as for me its something that cant be compromised,as its a must for us to eat something that is halal.there is a difference between something that we are required to follow and something that is down right manipulation.

    well,i know you know him.he is a great man indeed.sadly,he's retiring. :)

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  4. Nicely said. What I see that really matters is intention. Kalau company tu memang jual produk diorang dengan menggunakan logo halal dengan niat untuk mengaut untung, setakat tu je la yang diorang dapat. Redha dan berkat Allah yang penting tu dia tak niatkan, tak dapat la. Our local businessman memang ader yang terang-terang menekankan 'kehalalan' produk diorang dan kalau benar memang diorang niat buat semua tu Lillahita'ala dan untuk kebaikan umat Islam, Insya Allah dapatla benda yang lebih baik dari keuntungan dunia...

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