The domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry today said it was an offence for premises owned by non-Muslims, which did not have the halal certificate, to display Quranic verses.

“Displaying the Quranic verses can confuse the Muslims who will assume that the premises had obtained the halal certification.

“We take this issue seriously because last year alone, we received 22 complaints on the halal status,” the chief enforcement officer of the ministry’s Selangor branch, Azman Adam, told reporters after checks on several food premises here today.

Officials from the Selangor Islamic Religious Department, Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) and the Klang Municipal Council also took part in the operation.

Azman said food premises were not obliged to obtain the halal certificate to operate, but it was an offence for those without it to promote their outlets as halal.

Yesterday, in Kota Bharu, non-Muslim traders were also advised against using Islamic elements as their business strategies to attract Muslim consumers.

Kelantan Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPIM) president Dr Fared Abdul Ghani said such a “strategy” was dishonest and would discourage Muslim consumers from patronising their premises.

He urged the ministry to act against traders who deliberately displayed Jawi scripts or Quranic verses at their business premises to deceive Muslims.