Australian senator's anti-halal crusade evokes hateful response

Australian Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi's enquiry into halal food has evoked a flood of hateful submissions.

A month after Bernardi set up a Senate committee enquiry into the "third party certification of food", the probe has already attracted 220 written submissions from the Australian public, The Age reported on Saturday.

While the enquiry is supposed to look into all kinds of food certification, including kosher, organic and genetically modified foods, the overwhelming majority focuses on halal food.

The submissions suggest people are irritated by the food certification.

Some complain about how halal food robs them of their freedom to choose to eat what they want while some seem to be under the misapprehension that non-Muslims are not allowed to eat halal food.

Bernardi moved a motion in the Senate on May 13 to launch a six-month investigation into the food certification schemes.

He said he wanted to "establish the facts" about all certification schemes.