No ban on Christmas cake greetings, MP assures all  

KUCHING (Dec 18): There is no issue for bakeries and cake shops that are halal-certified to write Christmas greetings on cakes, assures Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen.

According to Padungan assemblyman and Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman, the issue arose following a secular issued by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) in 2020 that did not allow halal-certified bakeries to have such festive greetings to be put on any of its products.

This was later refuted by Jakim, which stated that under that secular, such writings were allowed, but not for items meant for store display.

“Recently, an internal memo from a bakery had gone viral, claiming that shops with halal certification could not sell cakes with ‘Merry Christmas’ (written) on them.

“This is crazy! This was due to a secular issued by Jakim in 2020 – at that time, the government was under Perikatan Nasional (PN).

“Yesterday, Minister in Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr Mohd Na’im Mokhtar had issued a statement saying that the directive could not be followed. All bakeries and cake shops with halal certification, can write the festive greetings on their products,” Chong spoke at a ‘Christmas Get Together’ in Kampung Semaba community hall yesterday.

In a circular dated Dec 14 this year, and signed by the operations manager of the bakery that was on the viralled news, the justification for the decision to not have any Christmas greetings written or displayed on cakes was to comply with the halal certification requirements set by Jakim.

Earlier on Nov 1, Jakim had addressed a similar issue concerning another article about using ‘Merry Christmas’ greeting on cakes.

The department said: “Jakim stresses that festive greetings are allowed on products if they were not made with the purpose of being displayed at the premises having the halal certification, or on products marked with the halal logo.

“This is because there are no provisions about the celebration of any festivals, including Islamic celebrations, stated in the Malaysian Halal Certification Procedure Manual (Domestic) 2020.”

In a post on its Facebook page yesterday, Jakim advised all halal certification holders to refer to the department to address and rectify any confusion regarding halal certification in Malaysia.

It further clarified that the halal certification holders would not be prevented from writing festive greetings on cakes or other similar products.

Meanwhile, at the event here yesterday, Chong presented a cheque for RM50,000 to SK Sacred Heart Semaba to help cover the upgrading works on its facilities.

Accepting the cheque was the headmistress Magdalene Lilawati.