The issues of halal economics were first raised at the First International Conference on Islamic Economics, which took place in Makkah al-Mukarramah nearly a half century ago in 1976.

Jerusalem, 18 March 2008. A first: German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech to the Knesset. Thus far, only heads of state, not heads of government, were permitted to address the Israeli parliament.

Allow me to take you on a journey to possible futures and possible alternative futures or transformations of halal and haram.

I was recently in conversation with a colleague in Japan who works on the conflicts and contestations around halal practice and halal certification in East Asia.

Halal is expanding. Not only the ubiquity of the halal label found on products, but the wide variety of applications of the concept.

All tragedies are equally tragic in essence, but they feel even more tragic if they involve someone you know, or someone well known and loved.

I was very young when my maternal grandfather died. I never got to know him as a person. But everything I’ve heard about him, from my parents and aunts and uncles, makes me yearn to know him, to have had a conversation with him.

The dynamic relationship between halal, the Islamic concept of permissibility, and izzat, synonymous with honour, casts light on the challenges faced by the British Pakistani Muslim community living within a neoliberal capitalist society.

Can a book be haram? This is a complex question. Intrinsically, books are simply words on a page, notes strung together, images.

Growing up, everything was considered haram. You got a bank account? Haram. You wear jeans? Haram. You got your ankles out? Haram!