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Saturday, July 16, 2005

Coca-Cola may have a Fatwa to deal with

Coca-Cola may face a fatwa, or decree by Muslim leaders if more samples prove to have liquor in them following the discovery of alcohol in a bottle of the beverage.

In June of this year a Mpumalanga doctor, Haroon Dindar, bought a crate of 1.25 liter bottles of Coke from a bottling plant in Ermelo South Africa. One of the bottles that he opened had a smell of alcohol so he sent the contents for testing. The test showed it had in fact contained 0.925g of alcohol per 100ml.

coke can

Moulana Abdool Wahab Wookay, chief executive officer of the National Independent Halaal Trust, said samples from bottles in the same batch were sent to an independent laboratory in Durban.

So far Muslim ulama, or leaders, are satisfied so far after visiting a number of Coca-Cola plants around the country that this was an isolated case.

The potential financial loss to Coca Cola if a fatwa is issued could be staggering and since Coca Cola is one of the cultural symbols of many generations of Americans one has to wonder if this was accidental, intentional for the economic reasons, or intentional by a disgruntled employee? Was this a hate crime do to offend a Muslim who would consume this product by accident, or was it even intentional for political reasons?

So I ask, since this is such an isolated incident, was this alleged alcohol introduced into the bottle as the raw ingredients where contaminated? Was it in the mixing, production and bottling, or was it contaminated in the distribution channel or retail level?

It is also a possibility that Dr. Haroon Dindar is creating another finger in Wendy’s chili incident that could have larger finical and political repercussions.

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