Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Campell's Drops ISNA But It's Still in the Jihad Soup

Joe Kaufman updates the Campbell's-soup-goes-halal story:
In October 2010, news broke about how the Campbell’s Soup company received an Islamic (halal) certification for some of its product line, and many were outraged. There was a legitimate concern – not with the fact that Campbell’s received the certification, but with what organization the certification came from, that being the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a group co-founded by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Sami al-Arian.
In 2007 and 2008, ISNA was named by the U.S. Justice Department as a co-conspirator for two federal trials dealing with the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas. The defendants of the trials were the leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and HLF itself. In the end, each was found guilty of all charges.
There was good reason for ISNA being named. For years, since HLF was established in 1987 as the Occupied Land Fund (OLF), the group advertised its mailing address as the same one being used (to this day) by ISNA. ISNA’s main youth group, the Muslim Students Association (MSA), asked for donations to be sent to the address in OLF’s name.
This information, along with the backlash Campbell’s received, might have contributed to Campbell’s ending its association with ISNA and becoming the client of another halal group, the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA). However, Campbell’s may have acted too soon, as ISNA has now announced that it and IFANCA have forged an agreement to work together. As was posted this month on ISNA’s site, “ISNA has built an alliance with the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA), the largest Halal certifying body in the U.S., for support in establishing the national Halal standards and accreditation body.”
But regardless of ISNA’s connection to IFANCA, IFANCA has major terror-related problems of its own...
The exact date the Campell's-ISNA story broke: October 5, 2010.  I should know because I'm the one who broke it. After Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs picked it up and wrote about it, it because something of an Internet sensation; why, yours truly was even dissed on The Colbert Report, an occurrence of which I remain inordinately proud. Sad to see, though, that despite the exposure, Campell's continues its foxtrot with triumphalist Muslims.

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