Cynics all over the country are raising their glasses to the sordid way the Rayani Air saga is ending. Many were indeed sceptical when it was announced a few months ago that Malaysia would have its first shariah-compliant airline. After all, shariah compliance is only window dressing to the ins and outs of operating an airline, and to say Rayani was somewhat lacking in that area is to put it kindly.

Just weeks after the announcement, we began to hear stories about cancelled flights and aunties sleeping on cold airport benches. These have culminated in the suspension of the airline’s license amidst a strike by pilots, who claim they have not been paid in months.

Rayani Air chief executive Ravi Alagendrran is now in a stand-off with the airline’s employees, who have announced plans to take over the airline despite their boss’ assurances that he indeed has investors waiting to come aboard and rescue the venture.

This has made for some very entertaining headlines, for sure, but for the shariah-compliant industry, it is a tremendous setback. When Rayani Air was first announced, some were concerned that the shariah-compliant label was nothing more than a cash grab for Ravi, and it is hard to argue in his defence when the airline was so obviously ill-equipped for the task of serving customers. The situation just looks bad all around, and the label has been damaged a lot more than people want to admit.

The culture of cashing in on religious sentiments has been something of a problem in the Malay community for a while now. Advertisements for this or that product supposedly treated with Zamzam water or some other miraculous substance are ubiquitous, and so are the outlandish claims about the magical efficacy of these items.

It is, of course, entirely up to the consumer to decide whether he should believe such claims. What needs to be addressed is the idea that the Muslim community is just another opportunity market. Should we make products catering to our community? Of course, we should. We make up the majority of the population, and it would be stupid to ignore the business potential in catering to us.

The problem arises when “catering” becomes pandering. We Muslims tend to see labels like “halal” or “shariah compliant” as a guarantee that a product is “made for us”. We are thus less likely to question its actual quality. Political theorists refer to this phenomenon as “dog whistle politics”. It is characterised by the use of certain keywords to send two different messages in the same speech. Certain keywords evoke specific reactions from certain communities. Meanwhile, nothing seems amiss to the general public.

If Malaysia is truly to lead the way in the shariah-compliant industry, then we need to hold it to higher standards. We should not tolerate shoddy ventures that wear religion on their sleeves as a selling point because, at the end of the day, it is the groundwork that determines whether or not a venture is successful. It only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole lot, and we’ve already bitten into a few.