By Leila Samodien
The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), plans to call an "emergency meeting" of all South Africa's halaal certification bodies to discuss whether to revoke the halaal licences of food producers and food outlets it claims are helping fund Israel and its military campaign in Gaza.
The companies include Coca-Cola and KFC, as well as McDonald's, which the MJC has been certifying for a year.
The boycott was first made public by Pagad at a mass march last week.
Since then, the MJC has pledged its support for the campaign. The Islamic Unity Convention has also backed the boycott.
However, none of the Islamic organisations has come forward with proof to substantiate their claims that the companies support Israel.
All of the companies objected to the allegations last week.
MJC president Moulana Ighsaan Hendricks said the call for a boycott was not just Pagad's, but rather an international one, which all countries would be urged to adhere to.
However, when asked what evidence was available to back the allegations against the companies, Hendricks said the council was still "doing its homework" and that it would make their proof public "once they had done so".
He said "sensitive issues", such as Muslims employed at these companies, were being discussed but he was reluctant to give details.
The council's priority, Hendricks said, was for all the country's halaal certification bodies to attend a meeting to discuss the certification issue. This had been decided at a recent MJC executive meeting.
No final decision on the revocation of halaal certificates would be taken until the bodies had discussed it.
"It's not going to help to remove the certification of an outlet when another body will just certify it again," said Hendricks. It is a decision we must be unified in."
As yet, the other bodies have not been notified. The National Independent Halaal Trust confirmed it had not received any communique from the MJC.
The SA National Halaal Authority (Sanha) also said it had not been informed by the MJC about a meeting.
Spokesperson Ebi Lockhat said Sanha certified the products of about 800 companies, but they did not include those companies in line to be boycotted.
He said that while Sanha encouraged Muslims to follow the call of its religious leaders, it and other halaal certifiers were simply advisory bodies.
"If there was no demand for the product from halaal-conscious consumers, halaal certification would be of no relevance to food manufacturers.
"Therefore, in our opinion, the focus should be on the demand driving the sales and certification of a product, rather than the other way around."
Pick n Pay said it was guided by the government on which countries' retailers it should or shouldn't purchase goods from.
Last week McDonald's SA described as hoaxes an email and a text message being circulated stating that all profits made in the next two weeks would be donated to Israel.
KFC and Coca-Cola have also rejected the claims.