A man in Malaysia took to social media to share an incident with an Islamic bank he patronised, which invited him to an investment event at a non-halal restaurant.
To make matters worse, there was a suckling pig on the menu, which appeared to serve Chinese cuisine.
Perturbed at the seeming lack of regard for Muslim customers, the man called the bank’s staff out for their insensitivity.
Mr Saifullah Akhtar or @saifyakhtar on X said that he was recently invited by his bank’s relationship manager (RM) to an investment event.
He got the shock of his life, however, when he learnt that the event was in a non-halal setting.
Mr Saifullah attached his conversation with the manager, noting that it was “really weird” for the unnamed Islamic bank to host an event in a non-halal setting.
Source: @saifyakhtar on X
What perhaps made things worse were the pork dishes on the menu, including a suckling pig. Think of your standard Chinese restaurant.
Mr Saifullah then asked, “This being Malaysia with 1001 great Halal restaurants, hotels, etc to choose from. Yet your team decides to choose this particular restaurant?”
“Maybe, just maybe, you are excluding a lot of customers here,” he added.
“I really apologise for sending the wrong message here,” the RM replied.
Though the manager mentioned that it was his fault for “not checking first”, Mr Saifullah wondered if this meant that he should not have been invited.
“This issue here is not your invitation — it is your organisation’s choice to select a non-halal restaurant when it didn’t have to, knowing that a good portion of your high-net-worth clients are practising Muslims. Bro.”
Even if they wanted to host the event at a hotel, they could have picked from any number of five-star hotels with halal Chinese restaurants in Petaling Jaya, he pointed out.
The RM continued to apologise for offending Mr Saifullah and another woman in the WhatsApp group chat and promised to invite them to the next event, but the damage was done.
Source: @saifyakhtar on X
Mr Saifullah said, “No bro, you didn’t make a mistake with me. Instead, this is your mistake: “You are an RM sitting at the (redacted) branch. Which is an Islamic banking branch. When you saw these event details, you should have told your management to reconsider the venue.”
“You should stand up for your customers,” he pointed out.
“This experience left me feeling overlooked as a customer,” Mr Saifullah mentioned in a tweet.
Though he picked an Islamic bank to align with his values, he felt that the choice of venue went against these principles.
“It wasn’t just about the food, but about feeling unwelcome where I should’ve been valued,” he said, noting that he declined the invitation because of this.
Mr Saifullah added that he had communicated his concerns privately to the bank in a later post.
Also read: M’sian Eatery Promotes Non-Halal ‘Nasi Kandar’ With Pork, Authorities Condemn Misleading Food Name
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Featured image adapted from Burpple and @saifyakhtar on X. Image on the left for illustration purposes only.
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