A pint cannot be halal

 

KUALA LUMPUR: There is no such thing as "halal" beer.

Beer is beer, it contains alcohol, and, therefore, it is not halal, Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria said.

Commenting on the subject, which was being hotly debated on social networking site Facebook, he said beer had never been halal because the alcoholic content was above 0.01 per cent.

"Any food or drink with an alcohol content of below that (0.01) is permissible but above that it is not halal. Alcohol is an intoxicant, therefore, it is haram. There shouldn't be any doubt about that."

Harussani said beverage manufacturers should not use the word beer for a non-alcoholic beverage, adding that the term itself was self-explanatory.

"It is very simple; basically beer is alcohol. Just don't use the term, 'halal' as it would only confuse the people."

According to Wikipedia, beer was the most widely consumed, and probably oldest, of the world's alcoholic beverages. It is the third most popular drink after water and tea.

Beer is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly from cereal grains -- commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize and rice are widely used.