dot-halal new gTLD application from Asia Green IT System Bilgisayar San | .Nxt

halal

Community

Initial Evaluation

Priority number:

1695

Government objection(s):

India

United Arab Emirates

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Applicant

Asia Green IT System Bilgisayar San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti.

Unit 3, No 9, Omur St, Bahcelievler,

Istanbul

Turkey

Phone:

+90 212 605 6551

Fax:

+90 212 603 6550

Government objection(s)

Explanation:

*** United Arab Emirates ***
The government of UAE would like to express its serious concerns toward “.halal” new gTLD application made by Asia Green IT System Bilgisayar San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. specifically in the areas highlighted below:

(1) private entity control over sensitive name
(2) Insufficient community support.
(3) Sensitivity of the name and domain name use policy

*** India ***
India is a secular country with a large Muslim population. Use or this extension is likely to impact upon section of the community unless there are stringent checks and balance with a strong anti-abuse policy.

Further, there are specific restrictions on the certification of food items as “Halal.” There is no certainty that the applicant will conform to the rules and regulations regarding this type of food item in India.

Reason/Rationale:

*** United Arab Emirates ***
(1) private entity control over sensitive name

“Halal (Arabic: ﺣﻼل halāl, "permissible") is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law.

Religious terms and subjects are very sensitive areas. The applicant is a commercial entity. Strict boundaries, measures and policies must be set to ensure that applicant business activities do not conflict with the religion objectives, principles, beliefs and laws. Therefore any religious terms must be only applied as a gTLD by a government or not-for-profit organization acting on behalf of that community as oppose to a private entity. It is unacceptable for a private entity to have control over religious terms such as Halal without significant support and affiliation with the community its targeting.

(2) Insufficient community support.

The application targets a specific community of those interested in Halal products and producers supporting Halal products. This covers wide range of community covering over 50 countries where significant Halal products are produced and consumed (over 1.6 Billion populations). The applicant has presented couple of letter of supports from organizations mostly associated with one country. The support letters presented by the applicant constitute a minority (less than 5% of the community) hence it clearly does not constitute as a sufficient community support.

If there is lack of support from the community to this application then it will most probably be dominated by subgroup from the religion and will ignore the interests of the remaining majority. This will adversely affect the interest of the community to register in the TLD and therefore limit its growth.

Furthermore there is lack of information regarding background and affiliation of the applicant and its leader. In all cases they will not represent the entire Muslim community and hence the support of community is an essential prerequisite and must be in a form of letter from known NGOs and inter-governmental organizations that do represent majority of the community such as the IOC.

(3) Sensitivity of the name and domain name use policy

Religious topics such as Halal are extremely sensitive subject. Within religions there are different sub groups and sects who may have many differences and diversities. It is very difficult task to unite all of these differences under one TLD unless it is run and supported by an organization that represents the community or its majority. There are many organizations that do represent significant parts of the community and it is vital that those organizations endorse and support this application.

As with all religious terms, Halal is closely associated with Islamic law. Anything that would conflict with Islamic law would be unacceptable for the followers and believers of Islam (hence the community) in general which naturally brings issue of registration and use policies. A very important question must be raised as to how the applicant will ensure that the use of the domain name is in line with Islamic Law and Halal principles? These issues will be eliminated if this TLD is supported and supervised by an IGO which represents majority of the community. Furthermore, the application lacks any sort of protection to ensure that the use of the domain names registered under the applied for new gTLD are in line with Islam laws and Halal principles. There are no clear mechanisms to prevent any abuses related to the above.

For the above reasons, the TRA on behalf of the government of UAE would like to raise its disapproval and non-endorsement to this application and request the ICANN and the new gTLD program evaluators to not approve this application.

*** India ***
India is a secular country and the grant of this extension has to be proceeded with stringent preverification. The term halal is associated with Muslim community and carries with it a lot of sensibility.

The capture of such a term online needs to ensure that sufficient check and balance are put in place to prevent its misuse. Unrestricted use of the extension is likely to increase the possibility of hurting religious sentiments leading to the social unrest. Also as per the Indian Trade Mark Law any term likely to hurt religions susceptibilities of any class or section of the citizens of India should not be registered the trade mark.

In addition, the designation of food as “Halal” must conform to strict regulations and rules that govern this area in India. The applicant must demonstrate how they will conform to such rules, and must submit an undertaking that only verified registrants with documentation determining that they are certified to carry Halal food will be allowed to register names.

Therefore pre verifications along with required anti abuse policy must be put in place before this gTLD extension is granted.

Possible Remediation:

*** United Arab Emirates ***
The applicant should withdraw their application based on the information provided above

*** India ***
1. The designation of food as “Halal” must conform to strict regulations and rules that govern this area in India. The applicant must demonstrate how they will conform to such rules, and must submit an undertaking that only verified registrants with documentation determining that they are certified to carry Halal food will be allowed to register names.
2. Clear rules as to takedowns of names should they not conform to the verification must be shown
3. At the same time, this name should not be restricted to just Muslims, or to just registrants from predominantly Muslim countries
4. Finally, to address the needs of developing nations, the applicant must demonstrate that their gTLD will not disadvantage registrants from developing countries due to economic reasons, or render unable to register names due to cost factors.

Registry services

CoCCA

Legal establishment

Private

Limited Company

Turkey

Benefit

Mission/purpose:

There are hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide, practicing their faith in a huge variety of different ways. They are a disparate group, yet they are united through their core beliefs. They are a group whose origins are found some 1400 years in the past, their ethnicity often inextricably linked with their faith. Hitherto, however, there has been no way to easily unify them and their common appreciation of Islam. The .HALAL gTLD will change this.
As Halal is one of the concepts of the Islam religion, the .HALAL gTLD is the perfect way to easily and simply tie together online the peoples of various nations connected religiously to the Muslim community which was first established more that 1400 years ago.
The .HALAL gTLD will be a community application with open to those who embrace the concept and requirements of Halal.
Islam is the monotheistic religion articulated by the Qurʹan, a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Arabic: ‎ Allāh ), and by the teachning and normative example (called the Sunnah and composed of Hadith) of Muhammad, considered by them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim.
The majority of Muslims are Sunni, being 75–90% of all Muslims. The second largest sect, Shia, makes up 10–20%. About 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, 25% in South Asia, 20% in the Middle East, 2% in Central Asia, 4% in the remaining South East Asian countries, and 15% in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sizable communities are also found in China, Russia, and parts of Europe. With over 1.5 billion followers or over 22% of earthʹs population, Islam is the second-largest and one of the fastest-growing religions in the world.
Halal (Arabic: حلال‎ ḥalāl, ʺlawfulʺ) is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law.
The terms Halal is also applied to many other facets of life; and one of the most common uses of these term is in reference to meat products, food contact materials, and pharmaceuticals. In Islam there are many things that must clearly be defined as halal.
The concept of Halal has slowly become accepted as a consumer lifestyle choice encompassing not only religious practices and food, but also finance, non-food products and logistics. Halal provides a set of laws and guiding principles, and separates out those animals that are prohibited (‘haram’) and permitted (‘Halal’). As well as outlining methods of slaughtering, Halal prohibits consuming blood or blood products and intoxicants (e.g. alcohol) etc.The common understanding of Halal is still limited to religious needs and only applicable to Muslims. It is considered a given in Turkey and the Middle East, although consumers in this region generally do not place much importance on specific Halal branding, certification or country of origin.
A robust gTLD has the power to bring together Muslims across national borders in a free-flowing exchange of information and commerce. There is not a .COM or .ORG equivalent of .HALAL--a domain that has universal appeal across a common religion.
Asia Green IT System Bilgisayar San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. (AGITSys) was founded in (as is headquartered in) Turkey (an Islamic nation that straddles Europe and the Middle East) by Muslim people with great affinity with their religion, which manifests itself in both pride and honor. Because of this, and their devotion to creating a quality online space for the Muslim faithful amongst others, AGITSys’ founders have gathered together a highly experienced team with a variety of Internet-based expertise, a daunting but critical task. The team behind AGITSys has taken a leading role in working toward dedicated Muslim domain names for more than 8 years. No entity is better suited to manage the .HALAL gTLD, nor more dedicated to providing new online tools and services to facilitate the unification of the .HALAL community online. The .HALAL gTLD will increasingly open up the vast resources of the Internet and the interconnectedness it brings to the Muslims community, while stimulating the introduction of more information and resources among Muslims online. The .HALAL gTLD is designed to accommodate a global community, and AGITSysʹ team’s work with ICANN has always looked not just to serving Muslim people but all users of the internet - thus serving Muslims and those interested in the Muslim faith all around the world – whilst simultaneously achieving ICANN’s goal of creating greater competition in the gTLD space.

Community

Description:

The word “HALAL”:
HALAL is one of the most fundamental concepts of the Islam religion.
Halal (Arabic: حلال‎ ḥalāl, ʺlawfulʺ) is used to designate any object or an action which is permissible under to Islamic law. The term halal is therefore applied to many facets of Muslim life; one of the most common being in reference to meat products, food contact materials, and pharmaceuticals. The halal concept has slowly become accepted as a consumer lifestyle choice encompassing not only religious practices and food, but also finance, non-food products and logistics and this is a trend has gathered significant momentum recently. However, the common understanding of halal is still limited to religious needs and only applicable to Muslims. It is considered a given in Turkey and the Middle East, although consumers in this region generally do not place much importance on specific halal branding, certification or country of origin.

The HALAL industry service providers Community:
Halal industry service providers are the community that the .Halal gTLD is designated for.
The Halal industry service providers’ community consists of all those who do engage in:
1. Research, Development, Monitoring and Certifying of Halal materials,
2. Production of Halal Materials
3. Distribution of Halal Materials
4. Sales and Marketing of Halal Materials
This will consist of a huge amount of industry role players which basically serve the 1.2 Billion Muslim population in the word, but the community’s services is not just limited to Muslims, rather many non-Muslims nowadays who has accepted the halal concept as a healthy life style. Considering this, we can estimate the size of the community, and also the wide distribution of the community in the world. Since wherever a Muslim lives, there is a place for the Halal service providers to be active. It means that the Halal community is spread all over the world, and itʹs not necessary to describe that the community remains forever.
Now, in the globalization age, the development of Halal standards sponsoring by standing monitoring centers in all aspects of life is a must, so that all products would be presented by special brands to guarantee the consumersʹ tranquility of mind at the global level especially in non-Islamic Countries. This certification brings an identity to the members of the Halal community as described later.

The Halal Food Industry
Halal Food industry can be named as the most important portion of the Halal service providers’ community.
In Muslim countries, the food industry is almost 100 percent based on the Halal food preparation methods, but Halal foods are becoming more and more popular even in non-Islamic countries every day. In South Africa most chicken products have a halal stamp. The South African National Halal Authority issues halal-approved certificates and products bearing this is logo range from meat to water, snacks, and even other meat free products (which may ordinarily contain non-halal ingredients). The South African National Halal Authority (SANHA) also licenses the usage of the Halal logo in restaurants where the food is halal and no alcohol or pork products can be served. Similar movements in the US, UK, China, Malaysia, Singapore and many other non-Muslim majority countries are equally, or ever better, established.
One of the first halal food companies in the USA is Midamar Corporation, established in 1974. It is also one of the first companies in the USA to sell USDA approved and Halal certified US protein products to the Middle East and South East Asia. The Certification Agency Islamic Services of America was established in 2004 and located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Islamic Services of America certifications are recognized by some Islamic Countries.
In Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.A (the home of one of the largest Muslim and Arab populations in the United States), and some fast food restaurant chains such as the McDonaldʹs Corporation have introduced halal chicken nuggets and other halal offerings. In a similar light, McDonaldʹs, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken have been declared to be halal in Sri Lanka by the Jamiyathul Ulama, the only authority able to give out the certification there. In the United Kingdom, China, Malaysia or Singapore, halal fried chicken restaurants having thousands of outlets serve halal foods, such as the Chicking Fried Chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Brownʹs Chicken, and Crown Fried Chicken companies. As of February 2009, Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in the U.K. began to sell halal meals in several restaurants.
Also, in New York City there are numerous halal food carts in business which serve gyros, chicken platters, and other halal fast foods, whereas in Europe, there are many of the Muslim-owned Döner kebab shops.
Thailand also has a noticeable population of Muslims and Halal-meat shops country-wide.
Within the Peopleʹs Republic of China, which has a sizable Hui Muslim minority population, halal food is known as ʺQingzhenʺ (pinyin: qīngzhēn; literally ʺpure truthʺ). Halal restaurants run by Hui Chinese resemble typical Chinese food, except that they do not serve pork. Dishes specific to Hui Chinese are known as Chinese Islamic cuisine.
Halal Certificates:
Since the turn of the 21st century, there have been efforts to create organizations that certify food products as halal for Muslim consumers.
Since 1991, mainstream manufacturers of soups, grains, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, prepared foods, and other products, as well as hotels, restaurants, airlines, hospitals, and other service providers have pursued the halal market. These companies purchase halal-certified products. Halal certification tells Muslims that their ingredients and production methods have been tested and declared permissible by a certification body. It also allows companies to export products to most Middle Eastern countries and South East Asian Countries. The oldest and most well-known halal certifier in the United States is called the ʺIslamic Services of Americaʺ. Something that companies which intend to export halal products must keep in mind, when choosing a certifier, is whether or not the certifier is recognized by foreign governmental bodies.
In 1986, the ʺIslamic Meat & Poultry Companyʺ was founded in Stockton, California. Islamic Meat & Poultry is a halal-only, U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected, hand-slaughtering and meat-processing facility. This company follows the principles of slaughtering and meat-processing according to the Islamic Shariah.
In 2011, Halal Products Certification Institute was established in California, United States of America and became the first worldwide corporation that Certified Halal Consumer Products such as Cosmetics, Personal Care Products, Perfumes & Fragrances, The institute was established by renowned Islamic intellectual scholars and top Muslim scientists in the world to assure the dissemination of halal consumer products.
Also in Europe, several organizations have been created over the past 20 years in order to certify the halal products. A survey recently published by a French association of Muslim Consumers (ASIDCOM) shows that the market of halal products has been developed in a chaotic way.
Islamic Chamber research & Information Center (ICRIC), affiliated to Islamic Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) and a member of the family of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has embarked to study and research on the subject to meet the need in Muslim World. ICRIC has also embarked to adopt a monitoring system in ʺHalal Productʺ including ʺHalal Foodʺ and proceeded to research, development, information and support in this ground.
The .HALAL gTLD will allow —the Halal industry service providers community to unite online as a full and robust community, enjoying the connection and exchange of information empowered by faith, and community in beliefs.

PIC spec

Elements covered:

Protection of Geographic Names

Details:

Applicant agrees to follow the PIC resolution process (PICDRP).

a. Registry Operator does its outmost to ensure that WHOIS data is verified, authentic and publicly accessible.

b. Registry Operator does its most to limit second-level domain registrations to those of Muslim faith, or those with a clear interest in serving the Muslim community and faith beneficially.

c. Registry Operator will not tolerate any illegitimate and non-legal activity such as terrorism, online counterfeiting and piracy, radical content, content that criticizes Islam and the Muslim faith. Immediate and severe action will be taken against registrants promulgating either, and a black list will be created in an attempt to pre-empt any such attempts. Registry operator will fully cooperate with any authorities that have jurisdiction over it in this regards.

d. While the Registry Operator cannot guaranty to prevent all illegitimate and non-legal activities, but will do all possible or utmost to prevent these activities by implementing protection measures for registrations to ensure an abuse free environment whilst maintaining choice.

Application file

Halal application

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