International 2nd Halal and Healthy Food Congress Ended

International 2nd Halal and Healthy Food Congress ended by plate presentation ceremony and closing speech of our Rector Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Şeker which took place after on November, 10 in the morning at 09:00 started and at 16:30 finished evaluation sessions. There were more than 60 verbal manifestos and 65 poster manifestos at the congress that lasted 4 days and at which 50 participants from abroad declared manifestos. The congress attracted great interest and every day average number of participating audience was 800. At the last evaluation session which took place on the last day of congress, session chair Prof. Dr. Hamdi Döndüren made a presentation. Speakers at the session said followings respectively:

Prof. Dr. Saffet Köse: “The Holy Qur’an persistently puts emphasis on clean and halal food. Everything on the earth has its own qualities derived from creation and do not corrupt it. Malice has emerged on land and at sea due to doings of mankind. In another verse of The Holy Qur’an, it is stated that land, sea and sky were conferred mankind’s usage. The Supreme Being (Allah) orders all prophets and all people to consume the clean and halal ones. I would like to lay stress on the concept called Tayyip. When you ask a hodja whether a food is halal or forbidden by religion, if he says it is halal then this food is halal; on the other hand as for Tayyip, it is the one that satisfies you. Another subject is the influence of food eaten to the behaviors of mankind. There is information implying that clean and halal food canalizes people to goodness whereas food forbidden by religion canalizes people to evil. Halal bears good deed in it while the forbidden bears sin. People generally have a passion for the forbidden. However, there are alternatives of every food created in order to keep mankind away from the forbidden. The important thing is to seek for the halal. Forbiddances require proof. If you declare a food forbidden by religion you got to prove this.”

Prof. Dr. Muhlis Akar: “The foods we eat carry extreme significance on acceptance of our prayers, worships by Supreme Being (Allah). The foods we take influence our generations, future and health. Besides it is important on our existence as Muslims. Don’t we, as Muslims, have a message and present a distinction in the name of Islam? In my opinion, towards life as a whole especially in compulsory situations by not pushing hard, we should behave prudently. Why do we assume the water as healthy when it has not lost its color, taste, smell? In todays’ conditions there are radioactive and chemical effects. The goal resulting from documentation activities of halal food convention and scientific works should not be only determination of the halal or forbidden beings of foods. In addition to this, the main goal should be the constitution of customer demand for production and consumption appropriate to our values. It should be to make contribution in coming into effect the principles of halal and tayyip from production to consumption.”  

Prof. Dr. Orhan Çeker, instructor at our university’s Faculty of Theology: “In this evaluation speech, we should rather point out the issues which we desire them to be in better conditions. Personally I accepted and wished these topics would be in manifestos as well: Food Philosophy, effects of food colors to humans, relevant to Jewish stamp types of vivisection of animals and controversies about it, effects of food on genes, ideological influences on food economy. White man enabled a philosophy to prevail the world; “Have other people around the world consume as much as they can. In this way we sell our products to them. So they become our market. And also let us determine a life style for them and the name of this life is modernism.” As you see, there on our food apprehension exists the influence of this food philosophy. In my opinion environmentalists can’t identify the number one enemy spoiling the environment or even though they can identify, we can’t see its reflection in their actions. The number one culprit is SQUANDERING. Encouraging consumption has such results like: More consumption requires more production, more production requires more raw materials and raw material requires extortion of some kind of things from environment, finally this damages environment. The people who squander in their lives are a part of this major crime.

Session Chair Prof. Dr. Hamdi Döndüren as last speaker at the congress spoke as followed: “Our Prophet (peace be upon him) in one of his hadith told that of those animals living on land which have canine tooth, which hunt their prey with paws and the birds eating carcass are forbidden as food to mankind by religion. We let veterinary science determine these animals. The feed consumed by an animal passes into its meat and if the feed is harmful, it damages the health of the person who eats that meat too. The saliva of these animals is forbidden too. Nonetheless other beaked animals do not leave any residue into the water they drink from. So the remaining water from which these birds drank is not forbidden by religion. There is an understanding among people; eat and drink to the last whatever you desire. In the Holy Qur’an at the decree “Eat, drink but do not squander!” to the mankind, the word “squander” is generally understood as followed by Muslims; we should not leave anything on dinner table to be thrown away. Even though you are saturated, eat everything up on the table. We eat until there is no empty space in our stomach. Actually, as long as we leave dinner table unsaturated and behave accordingly to Qur’an and Sunnah, we keep our health as well. Islam brought along very beneficial standards harmonious with nowadays’ sciences.

At his Closing Speech of Congress our Rector Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Şeker has told: “During four days, there have been session on various topics, each of them so important that, may be the unique subject of a congress. I would like to present my sincere gratitude to friends and academicians from abroad and Turkey who contributed to this congress. I would like to thank to dear audiences for their participation as well. There is a highly broad organizational committee constituted by people mentioned here or not, who put efforts cooperatively for organization of this congress on a delicate matter; I would like to thank them as well. God willing, I wish we come together in much better future conventions. Naturally, there have been many lectures on a broad area comprising from international relations to economy, from genetics to Islamic law, from relation with media sector in religious sense to arrangements intended for the future of the community. As one of our lecturers told that “Each presentation and manifesto in the congress did not decrease the number of problems though they increased; on the other hand some of them both suggested solutions and introduced new problems.” Surely, in this sense, the idea of reorganization of new conventions will emerge on forthcoming days. I wish for all of you propitious and long lives in preference of healthy food residing in the concept of health and halal. A lot of people (50 participants) from abroad, from a wide spectrum of countries, e.g. Russia, Malaysia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Iraq and people from Islamic geography who ponder upon this matter, were together with us during the congress. I personally benefited a lot from them. I would like to lay stress on the continuance of intense cooperation in this area as well, if we believe in necessity of solidarity among Islamic community and want to arrive at a certain scientific level. Certainly there are countries that have initiated studies on these matters before us. As well as there are countries behind us. We have things to teach and to learn. We realize that these kinds of conventions create opportunity for further cooperation. In this context I would like to present my thanks to SMIIC (The Standards and Metrology Institute for the Islamic Countries) and General Secretary of SMIIC Haluk Dağ who works in cooperation with TSE (Turkish Standards Institution) and Organization of Islam. To be able to generate a common terminology was itself on its own one of the aims of this congress. Moreover, to able to arouse awareness in community and attract attention was our goal, too. I think we succeeded. God willing, I wish we come together at more efficient conventions on days we have less number of problems, more solutions and support each other much more; I would like to salute all of you with my affection and respect and present my gratitude.”

After the congress, our Rector Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Şeker has presented plates to the speakers. After that there was photo shooting altogether.