KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — The “P. Ramly” name initially used by restaurant chain Ninja Joe for its pork burger cannot be considered a misrepresentation to consumers that the product is halal, lawyers have said.

Civil liberties lawyer Fahri Azzat said he said a product’s name does not indicate whether it is of halal status, confirming that it is instead the halal certification and halal logo alone that determines this.

“It is not misleading or misrepresentation because the phrase ‘P. Ramly’ is not a signifier of halalness. It is the Halal Sticker and Certificate that is issued by Jakim that signifies that something is ‘halal’,” he told Malay Mail Online yesterday, referring to the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia by its Malay initials.

“It would be a different thing if the shop advertised the P. Ramly burger as being halal. Then they could be charged and sued for misrepresentation or possibly, fraud,” he said.

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Commenting on Ninja Joe’s posters of the ‘P. Ramly’ burger that had carried the word “pork”, Fahri said that is a “significant fact to show there is no misrepresentation”.

“They have indicated right up front that it is a pork burger,” he said, adding that a Malay name does not indicate that a product is of halal status.

Regulation of ‘halal’

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Last week, the Negri Sembilan Islamic Religious Affairs Department (Jheains) and Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) investigated Ninja Joe outlets following public complaints that the “P. Ramly” name was allegedly confusing to Muslims, with the latter saying that the restaurant chain had breached a trade description law.

Jais told Malay Mail Online then that Ninja Joe had allegedly violated Section 4(1) of the Trade Descriptions (Certification and Marking of Halal) Order 2011, which bars food from being described as halal or in any other way that would indicate it is consumable by Muslims unless it had been authorised by the competent authorities and marked with the halal logo.

Jheains had said its investigation was under the Trade Descriptions Act 2011, citing another subsidiary legislation under the Act — Trade Descriptions (Definition of Halal) Order 2011. This Order makes it an offence if similar descriptions of a product as halal or consumable for Muslims were used, when the conditions are not fulfilled.

But Fahri said these two 2011 orders should only apply if a company or person puts the ‘halal’ label on their products, which meant they would only be applicable if Ninja Joe had claimed its products were halal or could be consumed by Muslims.

“It should be applied when the words/pictures/materials used are done in such a way as to give the perception that the goods/food is halal. When someone writes ‘Pork Burger’ then I think that makes those Orders inapplicable,” he said.

He explained that the Islamic bodies’ scope of investigation under these Orders is limited to situations where products or food is represented as halal, saying: “They have no business determining whether something not represented to be halal is halal or not.”

More than just product name

Lawyer Nizam Bashir said both the use of the word “halal” and the halal logo are regulated by the two 2011 orders, specifically referring to Section 4 of the Trade Descriptions (Definition of Halal) Order 2011 as criminalising any act that misleads and confuses any person that a food in question is halal.

“So the issue is whether the conduct in question, irrespective of whether it is merely a product name, misleads or confuses whichever class of persons to believe that the product is halal,” the civil liberties lawyer told Malay Mail Online.

“The assessment must be on broader range of things, it can include product name but it is not confined to product name,” he said.

Advocating a holistic approach that looks at the context of each case, Nizam noted that the class of persons that may be affected in this instance — both Ninja Joe’s customers or those who viewed its materials online — “would know that Ninja Joe is a chain of restaurants principally selling pork burgers”.

“The word ‘pork’ in the poster and also the fact that Ninja Joe is known as a place that sells pork burgers, so those who patronise it, you would know it’s a place that sells pork burgers, because of that, that class of persons would appreciate it’s a place that doesn’t sell halal food,” he said.

Nizam said that the “P. Ramly” burger name would not have breached Section 4, but suggested that it may arguably be misleading conduct to use the word “Ramly” in burger advertisements as it may infer an association to the Ramly Burger brand and its founder Ramly Mokni, which could be criminalised by provisions such as Section 18 of the Trade Descriptions Act 2011.

Laws in the consumers’ interest

Nizam said the way that the 2011 order on halal certification was drafted is not overly wide as trade descriptions can be breached either expressly or implicitly, noting that it was enacted to also cater to instances where someone implicitly contravenes Malaysia’s halal trade description laws.

“We are not the only country that is regulating things like this on the basis of trade description,” he said, noting that there are similar provisions worldwide such as in the US to regulate food described as gluten-free or kosher — with the latter relating to food that conforms to Jewish dietary laws.

“Those laws are in place to merely ensure that food that is described as kosher or gluten free, whether explicitly or implicitly, conforms to that description,” he said, adding that they are meant to be in the interest of consumers and prevent fraud.

“Any product which is described as conforming to a certain quality has to conform to that particular description,” he said.

Ninja Joe had last week published an apology on its official Facebook page and said that it had not intended to offend, reiterating that it has taken down all posters advertising the “P. Ramly” burger and will be renaming it.

The burger chain previously told Malay Mail Online that the “P” in the “P. Ramly” burger launched on Hari Merdeka stands for pork, while the word “Ramly” was aimed at paying homage to the iconic Malaysian brand “Ramly Burger” and was unrelated to the late Malaysian artiste Tan Sri P. Ramlee.

Both Ninja Joe’s website and Facebook page describe the restaurant chain as serving non-halal food, with the latter stating that it is “best known for delicious pork burgers”.