The craze for bubble milk tea led to a Halal debate on Twitter
Recently, there has been a craze for bubble milk tea in Malaysia. Queuing lines at bubble milk tea shops are longer than usual.
At certain locations where parking spots are scarce, costumers will double park and cause a traffic congestion. This could make the non-bubble milk tea fans to be frustrated.
Some were confused and started to question the craze for the beverage. One of the most heated debate on bubble milk tea is whether or not the beverage is Halal certified. This is due to the imported ingredients from Taiwan.
Regardless, Muslims can lookout for the Halal logo at the storefront before making their purchase.
On Twitter, the debate about the halal status of bubble milk tea has led to a serious discussion on the cost of attaining a Halal certificate from JAKIM (a government agency responsible for Islamic affairs in Malaysia). Subsequently, the keyword “JAKIM” became trending on June 14.
The Twitter network topic ‘JAKIM’ can be divided into four prominent clusters; blue, green, orange and purple.
The blue cluster took up the biggest portion of the network at 38.75%. Based on its shape of numerous nodes circling around a node in the center, the cluster only consisted of one prominent influencer, which is the account @arfhartoe.
The influencer responded to another account, @asrulmm, who complained about the high cost of getting a Halal certificate. @arfhartoe wrote in his response that he is a food and beverage practitioner and has 13 Halal certified outlets. He tweeted that it is not costly to obtain a Halal certificate as it is just a documentation process. Most feedback he received were mostly positive.
Additionally, the blue cluster is closely linked to the green cluster. Plus, the green cluster also shares the similarity with the blue cluster by having only one influencer, @pablolantali.
The account tweeted Halal certificate bi-annual fees for industry level, stating that the high cost to attain a Halal certificate is just a perception. Like @arfhartoe in the blue cluster, most of the responses received by @pablolantali were positive.
Meanwhile, the purple cluster discussed on the difficulty of getting certified Halal by JAKIM.
The cluster influencer @ikabertweet shared the story of the difficulties he encountered when applying for Halal certificate. Other Twitter users also shared their tough experiences when trying to be certified by JAKIM.
On the other hand, the orange cluster discussed on the matter that JAKIM will not only evaluate food and drink premises based on their ingredients, but also on the cleanliness. The orange group was located further away from the other clusters as it addressed on Halal certification requirements instead of its cost.
The debate on the difficulties of being certified Halal by JAKIM all started with the popularity of bubble milk tea. It may sound ridiculous, but it produced a positive outcome to the people. Twitter users will be aware on the cost and requirements in order to be certified Halal by JAKIM.