Singapore’s Halal certification body said it had not stripped 63 restaurants of their halal certified status
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 13, 2019 at 08:30
- 2 min read
- By AFP Singapore
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The claim was posted on Facebook here on November 15, 2019.
The misleading post’s caption says in part: “MUIS has cancelled their halal-certified list. Check out the long list below.”
The post then contains a lengthy list of 63 restaurants including their address.
Muis is an acronym for the body’s official name, Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:
The same claim was also posted on Facebook here and here.
The claim is false; Muis has denied cancelling the restaurants’ halal certification.
"A text claiming that Muis has cancelled the halal certification of 63 eating establishments is making its rounds on WhatsApp again. Once again, we will like to clarify that this claim is absolutely false,” Muis wrote on Facebook on November 15.
Under Singapore law, Muis is the only organisation vested with the legal authority to issue Halal certifications, which attest that the food served is in accordance with Islamic principles.
The same claim and list of restaurants has circulated online since at least 2017, for example here.
Muis told AFP that it had filed a police report on the issue in 2017. “Muis filed a police report in 2017, when the list first surfaced online, and even before it went viral in 2018. We had not filed any police report since then.”
AFP found that the list of restaurants in the misleading Facebook post contains some eateries that are Halal certified and some that are not.
For example, Hanis, New Hawa, and Makan Bagus Nasi Padang are not certified halal according to Muis’ official website.
The status of a restaurant's Halal certification can be checked on Muis’ official website here.
A search on Muis’ website reveal that other restaurants on the misleading post’s list, for example Siam Kitchen, were still certified halal.
Siam Kitchen told AFP on December 6, 2019 that: “All Siam Kitchen outlets managed by Creative Eateries, past and present, are Halal certified by MUIS.”
Below is a screenshot of the halal certification status of the restaurant on Muis’ website:
Another restaurant on the list, Seoul Garden HotPot, was also still listed as halal certified on the Muis website.
Seoul Garden Group told AFP on December 11, 2019 that: “all outlets under Seoul Garden Group in Singapore are Halal-certified.”
This includes all Seoul Garden HotPot outlets.
Below is a screenshot of the Muis listing:
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