Toblerone has become the unlikely target of a boycott by the far-right after its manufacturers announced the famous triangular-shaped chocolates had been declared halal.
Mondelez, the US-based confectionery giant which produces Toblerone, announced this week its factory in Bern, Switzerland, had been awarded the status, which certifies the bars are permissible for Muslims to consume under Islamic dietary laws.
The company said it had not altered the ingredients of the product in order to earn the designation and had been producing halal-friendly chocolate since April.
“The Toblerone's original recipe remained unchanged,” a spokesman for Mondelez told German-language Swiss newspaper Blick.
However, the certification appeared to alarm some, including Jörg Meuthen, the federal spokesman of Germany’s far-right AfD party, who described the move as part of a wider trend of “Islamisation” in Europe.
“Islamisation does not take place - neither in Germany nor in Europe,” he wrote on his official Facebook page, sharing an article about Toblerone’s new certification.
“It is therefore certainly pure coincidence that the depicted, known chocolate variety is now certified as HALAL.”
Although several commenters appeared to agree with Mr Meuthen, with many calling for consumers to boycott the product in protest, others mocked the outrage over the news and drew attention to similar scares over the halal certification of other food and drink.
Source:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/toblerone-halal-boycott-germany-afd-switzerland-chocolate-a8692531.html
