In November 2023, the Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) The state government banned the production, storage, distribution, and sale of food, medicines, and cosmetic items with halal certification (except those produced for export) in the state immediately. In India, halal certification is given by many private companies which marks the items as prepared adhering to the Islamic law and that it is unadulterated. The concern that the majority of these certifying bodies are illegal and that the money generated from issuing forged halal certificates is diverted to anti-social and anti-national causes is behind this sudden clampdown by the U.P. government.
Halal India Private Limited is one of the many Halal certifying entities named in the filed FIR. It is however Abdul Jameel Mohamed Jinna (also referred to as A. J. Mohamed Jinna and Mohamed Jinna), the founder-chairman of Halal India whose national and international associations form the central theme of the present report.
Contents
- PROFILE AND BACKGROUND
- NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
- INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
- 1. Halal Research Council (HRC)-Pakistan
- 2. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan-President of Türkiye (Turkey)
- 3. Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA)
- 4. Muslim World League (MWL)
PROFILE AND BACKGROUND
The organization chart published on Halal India’s official website establishes Mohamed Jinna as the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Abdul Vaseem Shaik Dawood and Mujakkirullah are the other two directors.
Jinna holds directorships in a multitude of other India-based companies. Besides, his directorial ventures extend to Singapore, most notable among these being the United World Halal Development (UWHD) Pvt Ltd.
A Cochin Herald feature on Jinna, dated
2018 (https://web.archive.org/web/20210614031132/https://www.cochinherald.com/cover-story/mohamed-jinna-a-j-reforming-the-world-the-halal-way/), also hails him as holding board-memberships in Halal Nepal and Halal Bangladesh. The same source adds his footprints as extending over to the World Muslim Consumer Organization, SAARC Halal Council, and Arab Halal Authority as well.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Within India, Mohamed Jinna is on the advisory board of IndiaZakat.com, a zakat-based crowdfunding platform initiated by the Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP) (https://indiazakat.com/About/AdvisoryBoard ). Aamir Edresy, the president of AMP is known to support divisive agendas in the past.
(https://twitter.com/DivyaSoti/status/1540321622548049920/photo/3 ) (https://twitter.com/DivyaSoti/status/1540321622548049920/photo/1)
Jinna’s fellow advisory board member at India Zakat is H Abdur Raqeeb. Raqeeb, a member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH)’s Central Advisory Council, also acts as a trustee to several JIH-affiliated charitable organizations. JIH is under scanner, its Kerala student chapter Solidarity Youth Movement (SYM) having hosted a pro-Hamas rally in Malappuram in October of 2023.
(https://indiazakat.com/Team?TeamID=30 )
The list doesn’t end here. Mufti Abdul Kadir Barkatulla, another member of India Zakat’s advisory board also holds supervisory board membership in United Bank Ltd., a Pakistani multinational commercial bank.
(https://indiazakat.com/Team?TeamID=33 )
Former members of India Zakat’s advisory board also include Maulana Mohammad Faroghul Quadri, Secretary General of Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)-linked World Islamic Mission (U.K.); and Dr. Mohammed Obaidullah, who has had a long-standing association with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).
Besides Jinna’s past links with the controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik are also a point of interest. While the true nature of their association is not known yet, Jinna was spotted sharing space with Naik in a photograph posted by UNWHD’s official Flickr page.
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/118272223@N07/12671035095/in/photostream/)
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Mohammed Jinnah’s founder status in Halal India and United World Halal Development (UWHD) has led him to have associations with controversial Islamic institutions and bodies the world over, including in Pakistan.
1. Halal Research Council (HRC)-Pakistan
In 2011, Jinnah’s Halal India signed a Strategic Partnership MoU with Halal Research Council-Pakistan, an association that continues to date.
(https://www.halalindiacertificate.com/halal-media-news.html)
(https://www.halalrc.org/whoweare.php)
Mr. Muhammad Zubair Mughal, CEO of HRC is also the Managing Director of AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics (AlHuda CIBE), United Arab Emirates. AlHuda CIBE is also an international partner of UWHD. Incidentally, AlHuda is a key sponsor of the Global Islamic Microfinance Forum(GIMF). Mohamed Jinna was a speaker at GIMF’s 7th edition in Istanbul back in 2017. This further establishes the deep continuing ties between Jinna’s Halal India and its Pakistani counterpart Halal Research Council (HRC).
(https://www.alhudacibe.com/gimf2017/event-sponsors.php ) (https://www.alhudacibe.com/gimf2017/speakers.php)
2. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan-President of Türkiye (Turkey)
While the true nature of their association is not known yet, Jinna was spotted sharing space with Erdogan in a photograph posted by UNWHD’s official Flickr page.
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/118272223@N07/12670848353/ )
3. Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA)
Mohamed Jinnah’s United World Halal Development (UWHD) organized World Halal Day in Croatia back in 2016. At the event, Jinna was photographed with the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA)’s president Dr. Muhammad M. Chaudry. UWHD’s official Flickr page also features Jinna attending the 2014 Middle East Halal Congress, with IFANCA as one of the event sponsors.
Why Jinna’s IFANCA association is of particular interest is a 2021 report by Middle East Forum’s Sam Westrop alleging IFANCA as having handed out huge amounts of money to prominent Islamist organizations that are linked to terror groups such as Jamaat-e-Islamia, Hamas and Al-Qaeda. (https://thedailyguardian.com/why-top-halal-certification-body-is-funding-islamist-outfits-with-terror-links/ )
4. Muslim World League (MWL)
A 2020 tweet by Mohamed Jinna around his visit to Egypt had him tag the Muslim World League (MWL)’s official Twitter handle to the post. While the true nature of Jinna’s association with the MWL is not known, past controversies surrounding MWL are a point of interest. At multiple junctures in the past, MWL has been criticized for its alleged role in terror financing. (https://www.newsweek.com/intelligence-gearing-shadow-struggle-154135 ), anti-Israeli stance and strong ties with the Muslim.
Brotherhood (https://web.archive.org/web/20160415084750/http://archive.adl.org/main_terrorism/muslim_world_league_backgrounder.html#.Vo_QEvkrKUk ).
Besides, UWHD’s official page (https://www.unwhd.com/corporate/about/ ) also mentions a few other controversial foreign entities as its ‘esteemed partners’.
First, the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) is known for criticising India for its stance towards Kashmir militancy. In 2022, Yaseen Malik was convicted for terror funding, spreading terrorism, and secessionist activities in the Valley in 2017.OIC’s Human rights body had criticized the Indian court’s judgment in the case.
Second, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has also been the subject of terror-funding allegations in the past. IDB was in charge of the financing of al-Quds Intifada Fund and al-Aqsa Fund, both established during an Arab summit in Cairo in October 2000 for paying the families of Palestinian suicide bombers (https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/24914-terror-bank-gets-observer-status-at-u-n/ ).
According to NGO Monitor, a pro-Israeli NGO based in Jerusalem, IDB is a major contributor to Islamic Relief Worldwide, an organization criticized for its alleged support of terrorism and extremism. For example, the United Arab Emirates listed Islamic Relief Worldwide as a terrorist organization in 2014 (https://www.ngo-monitor.org/ngos/islamic_relief_worldwide_irw_/ ).
Lastly, Iqraa TV, a Saudi government-controlled television channel was part of a TV Monitoring project run by Middle East Media and Research Institute, a Washington-based non-profit, in 2004. It was alleged that the channel had shown supporting such ideas as calls for the annihilation of Christians and Jews, rampant anti-Americanism and antisemitism, and support of jihad.
