Industrial Master Plan (IMP) 2006-2020 aims to make Malaysia the global halal hub for the production and trade of halal goods and services. More importantly, the positive outputs of the halal industry must reach all segments of people including the underserved community such as the Orang Asli community. Due to the increasing number of people within the Muslim Orang Asli community, halal matters have become one of the crucial aspects to be monitored. Besides, past research has identified that the community in urban areas are highly aware on halal consumption compared to the community that lives in rural areas. Therefore, the aims of this study are to study the level of halal awareness among the Orang Asli, identify the factors that contribute to their level of halal awareness and analyze the issues and challenges in enhancing halal awareness and education in this community. The methods involved document analyses, short term on-site observation and interviews. The Knowledge Transfer Program (KTP) report is the prime source in this study. The programme was conducted under the purview of the IIUM International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART) between March 2013 to December 2015 in five selected sites in the states of Pahang, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor. The findings of the study imply that the level of halal awareness amongst the Orang Asli community is minimal and understanding of halal is restricted to halal food consumption only. There are many factors contributing to their minimum level of halal awareness including inadequate religious commitment, different food culture, educational and geographical backgrounds, language barrier and contrast in pedagogy. In order to make Orang Asli community well-aware and be educated on halal issues, necessary steps must be taken during the early stages of childhood to ensure the chain of knowledge would be continuous and sustainable through generations.

Today, halal is one of the discussed matters around the world. The demands for halal food are increasing simultaneously with the increasing numbers of Muslims throughout the years. Malaysia, with few other countries, has decisively taken this issue and is working very hard to develop several trustworthy halal industries. Though the halal journey started in Malaysia from the 1970s, a statement in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia 1957 perceived an obligation on concerned authorities to prepare halal food for Muslim consumers. This gradual development of amending its laws, enacting new regulations and orders, adopting halal standards and halal certification system is occurring in Malaysia. However, irrespective of all the initiatives, effectiveness of the halal certification is dependent on a comprehensive and sound organizational structure and system. Presently, an issue relating to halal certification has become an important part of the halal business. Malaysia is one of the pivotal and uprising stakeholders within the world’s halal market. For that reason, effective monitoring and execution can enhance the halal certification procedure and can reduce the cases of misusing the halal logo and halal certificate. A sound framework is necessary to enhance the halal industry. However, the existing framework is still at a developing stage. Without the collective efforts to improve the prudential framework, it would be challenging to gain the confidence of Muslim consumers and promote stability, solidity and future expansion of the Malaysian halal industry to the rest of the world. Comprehensive halal awareness programmes, steady regulatory structures and reliability of certifying processes can also enhance the country`s economy as well as recognition and the credibility in the global halal network. This study examines how important the halal certification is to ensure halal food in Malaysia as well as an improvement towards the halal industry and to what extent halal certified foods are guaranteed to as the rights of Malaysian Muslim consumers in complying with the Sharia`h principles.

In today’s world foods are rife with artificial additives, some of which may come from doubtful sources or have a potential to harm. Many of these additives have not been dedicated with any critical Islamic research, and thus a ruling has not been ascertained for each of them. This research analyzes four common food additives from an Islamic perspective. The guidelines that are used for these four additives can also be used to ascertain the rulings for all food additives. The four additives that are explored in this research are l-cysteine, soy lecithin, high fructose corn syrup and aspartame. These additives are classified as ‘generally recognized as safe’ (G.R.A.S) by the United States Food and Drug Administration. From an Islamic perspective, the researcher has determined that these four substances can be considered lawful with a few important considerations. Details of how these additives would be viewed in light of the Four Ma’dtha’hib are also included in the research.

The needs of the Muslim tourist vary form one type to another, but all tourists need some form of tourism related activities. However they are very few Muslim friendly tourism activities which due to inadequate facilities and attractions that cause very little substances for travel agency to promote Muslim friendly tourism. Current situations indicates that they are no clear guidelines and regulations on how to manage an Islamic and sharia-compliance sport facilities for the local authority and private company to follow and control. In response to this scenario, this research is to provide a greater understanding of Muslim friendly sport facility concept by scrutinizing the sharia principles framework for sport alongside with fatwas that are already produced to guide Muslim in sport. Besides that, the study also collaborated with the selected local authority which is Nilai Municipal Council (Majlis Perbandaran Nilai) in developing the guidelines and procedure in governing and managing the concept of Muslim friendly sport facility that follow the sharia guidelines. The type of methods that used in this study is by adopting the qualitative method of research. Qualitative methods often refer to several types of research techniques which includes case studies, observation, and interviews. Furthermore, qualitative methods emphasizing on the understanding, interpretation, observations in natural setting and closeness to data with a sort of observer view. In this research, three methods used to collect data which are library research, focus group discussions and open ended interview. The research required the general overview of the current roles of local authority in managing sport facilities in Malaysia. The method also emphasizes the shariah rules that have to follow in order to claim the sport facilities as a Muslim friendly. Besides that the research also integrates the shariah principles, the laws and regulations of sport facilities management in order to develop the Muslim friendly sport facilities. The findings of the study imply that the Muslim Friendly sports facilities development has improved rapidly over the past years in Malaysia. However, such improvements are inadequate to the overall development of sports facilities for the Muslim friendly tourism. However, there are still on-going debates on how people will practice and behave when they are using the Muslim friendly sport facilities. This is because people are not free from committing bad behaviors and this might give a bad image to the branding or Muslim friendly sport facilities. Thus, the study of people perception and practices that comply when they are playing in the Muslim friendly sport facility is necessary for the future research.

The main objective of this study is to examine and identify factors affecting overall halal brand equity through the marketing lens. This study investigates factors such as Country of origin, Marketing mix and Market turbulence with brand equity dimensions which are halal brand association, brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality and overall halal brand equity which is not given much research attention. In particular, the goal of this study is to determine how brand building effort affecting halal brand equity dimensions and how it affect or develop the overall halal brand equity. This is a quantitative study where a survey methodology is employed to collect the data. Individual consumers, were chosen as the sample for this study. The systematic sampling was used with an intercept procedure in selecting respondents from the respective individual who shop at four hyper markets in Klang Valley. Twenty four main hypotheses were proposed to influence overall halal brand equity, but only twelve hypotheses were supported. Structured questionnaires comprising 75 items were used to measure variables such as overall halal brand equity, country of origin, marketing mix and market turbulence which were adopted for this study. The findings revealed that significant influence exist among variables such as marketing mix, brand awareness, brand loyalty and perceived quality, brand awareness and overall brand equity, brand loyalty and overall brand equity. The findings also revealed that brand awareness, brand loyalty fully mediates and partially mediates respectively the relationship between country of origin and overall brand equity. Brand awareness and brand loyalty fully mediates the relationship between marketing mix and overall brand equity and perceived quality only mediates partially the relationship between marketing mix and overall brand equity. Market turbulence moderates the relationship between brand awareness, brand loyalty and overall halal brand equity. Finally, this study enhance the theories and model introduced such as tawhidic paradigm, customer based brand equity, brand equity creation process model and contingency theory putting together.

Halal and haram are ingrained in the daily life of a Muslim; guided by Al-Quran and As-Sunnah. This concerns of halal and haram has also opened a vast market operated by not only Muslims but non-Muslims all over the world. The rapid growth of halal market demands the use of technologies to ensure the quality and safety of halal products. These technologies range from compact and mobile test kits to the high-end techniques such as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). In line with the halal market growth, more scientific research related to halal by using the above techniques has also been reported. However, microarray has received very little attention in halal research. Therefore, this study explores the use of cDNA microarray to investigate the effects of fat from haram sources on HaCaT keratinocyte human skin cells in comparison to halal fat sources at gene expression level. The haram fat sources used in this study were lard and non-halal slaughtered lamb fat while Halal fat sources were virgin coconut oil (VCO) and halal slaughtered lamb fat. The RNAs extracted from treated cells were used in cDNA microarray (Agilent 8x60K SurePrint G3 Human GE). The data analyzed by GeneSpring GX 13.0, detected 50,739 genes from the four treatments and after further filtration; 53 genes were obtained with p-value of <0.05 and fold change of ?2.0 (FC range between -2.457 to 6.813). The most regulated genes were NLRP5, FABP3, RPS21, PRKDC, ERCC4, ACTG1P4, and RACGAP1P. Selected genes (FABP3, PRKDC, GULP1, and XPOT) were then validated using real-time PCR. The gene expressions from real-time PCR were found to be consistent with microarray data. Finally, pathway analysis using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA® 2016) software gave some insights into the underlying molecular networks and pathways. Although the results were not entirely conclusive, some patterns were observed; the four fat emulsion treatments were involved in similar bio functionalities (cellular growth and proliferation, cell cycle and cellular movement) and associated diseases (developmental disorders involving the cell growth, connective tissue and hematological disease). In conclusion, the study showed that halal and haram fat sources caused differential gene expression in human cells. However, more work is warranted to further elucidate the pathways involved in order to understand the potential benefits and/or the perceived harmful effects of the fats.

Nowadays, halal products are gaining wider recognition as a new benchmark for safety and quality assurance. As a consequence the commercial development of microalgae are established due to their high value chemicals, for examples, β-carotene, astaxanthin, phycobilin pigments and algal extracts for cosmaceuticals products. Therefore, many researchers have gained interest to study the potential of microalgae as new valuable chemicals and other products sources. The aim of the research is to explore new sources of pigments to be used as halal food colorants. This quest is not only directed in finding natural alternatives for synthetic dyes, but also to discover new taxons for the carotenoid production. Thus, there is a solid need to investigate the potential of natural pigments particularly carotenoids in microalgae to be fully utilised and commersialised especially in halal market, health advantages, food products and dye technology. A total of 10 species were evaluated for quantitative and qualitative carotenoid composition namely Chlorella fusca, Chlorella vulgaris, Selenastrum capricornutum, Pandorina morum, Butyriciococcus sudeticus ,Chlorococcum, Pseudanabaena, Scenedesmus, Ankistrodesmus, and Butyrocicoccus Brauni.Chlorella fusca (chlorophyta) and Pseudanabaena(cyanobacteria) and found three types of carotenoid out of them which are β-carotene, β-carotene and lutein. Species that was having all three types of carotenoid was Pandorina morum (Figure 4.8) with lutein (54.64±3.11 mg/g DW) , Beta cryptoxanthin (2.38±0.56 mg/g DW) and Beta carotene (1.39±0.38 mg/g DW) Manipulation of nutrient and nitrate concentration, manipulation of carbon sources. Two types of microalgae were choosen represent their division which are Chlorella fusca (Chlorophyta) and Pseudanabena (Cyanobacteria) were subjected to nutrient and manipulation stress studies. There were cultured using Bold’s Basal Medium (BBM), Bristol medium and Bold’s Basal Medium (BBM) modified with vitamin B with different nutrient and carbon sources. There were three types of carotenoid had produced which are zeaxanthin (21248.7 ± 240.61mg/g DW), violaxanthin (16299±423.09mg/g DW) and lutein (2335.53±69.82mg/g DW) with their highest number respectively. Nitrate concentration also been manipulated in all types of medium that been used and it had produced lutein. The highest lutein number was produced in cultivation of Pseudanabaena in Bristol medium with 0.5 fold nitrate concentration (1317.91±40.13mg/g DW). Chlorella fusca and Pseudanabena also been cultured in BBM with the addition of different elicitors which are salicylic acid (SA), polyethylene glycol (PEG) and sodium chloride (NaCl). All of these elicitors had initiate production of lutein. Among of those three elicitors, this studies had found that the implication of 25mg/L of SA had yield highest lutein concentration (666.45±24.66mg/g DW).Cell concentration of microalgae also been recorded for all studies except for profiling. Cell count were done using haemocytometer under microscope and growth pattern of microalgae been plotted to monitor microalgae cell density

The Malaysian government has been supportive of the development and expansion of small enterprises. Unfortunately, small enterprises are still plagued by low competition due to poor performance, inability to adapt to change, high cost and low productivity. Therefore, they failed to capture potentially lucrative halal food market opportunities. Hence, halal certification will be one of the strategies to help the SMEs to expand their business, without it, the industry faces challenges ahead. This study has designed and developed a management system to assist small enterprises in implementing standard requirements toward halal certification, which is the primary purpose of this study. The methods used in this thesis are qualitative and quantitative as a research strategy. Preliminary data was collected via initial assessment of the organization and participant observation where the researcher took part in the activities. The researcher assumed the role of the trainee consultant. The result of the initial assessment was used to determine strategic action plans that permit the extensive improvements, controls, training, documentation to be integrated into the operation activities such as production, purchasing, maintenance and others activities required by the halal assurance of food safety system management. This study has also shown that significant improvements especially on the new modified premise infrastructure and documentation development. Not to mention, an innovation of prototype mold was designed and developed to replace the previous mold that improves the quality and productivity of the product. The quantitative analysis results on conformance to the system implementation showed successful implementation and finally, human-related factors are also discussed in this thesis, which contributes to the effectiveness of system implementation. The major contribution of this study serves as a valuable guideline and strategic tool for new applicants pursuing halal certification and a reference to halal service providers. Finally, it provides operational guidelines for introducing halal certification standard to a wider base of SMEs food industry.

Muslim friendly or Shari’ah compliant hospitality services have emerged in recent years as part of the development of global halal industry. Malaysia has become one of the key players in this fast-growing and lucrative market and has been rated the world`s top Muslim-friendly holiday destination for the past few years by various rating agencies. As one of the most important service providers for tourism and travel related activities, the travel agencies play an important and essential role in worldwide tourism development and their role has been expanded in recent years with the global growth of Muslim friendly tourism and hospitality services. Despite this remarkable development, there have been many consumer complaints related to hospitality services in Malaysia. In fact, consumer claims against the travel agents were the top in the list of services cases filed in the Tribunal for Consumer Claims (TCC) for the past many years. In 2014, the TCC received 1,585 complaints against travel agencies especially related to umrah package. Thus the question arises as to whether the rights of Muslim travellers are well protected under the relevant laws in Malaysia. Adopting a doctrinal and content analysis methodology, the study aims to identify consumers’ issues in relation to travel agencies services in Malaysia. The main focus is to examine the relevant framework which include relevant laws, regulations, guidelines, codes of ethics which are related to Muslim friendly travel agencies services. The laws including Tourism Industry Act 1992 and Tourism Industry (Tour Operating Business and Travel Agency Business regulations 1992), MATTA Code of Ethics and Malaysian Standard MS 2610:2015 Muslim Friendly Hospitality Services-requirements. The purpose is to analyse the adequacy of the existing consumer protection laws in protecting Muslim travellers. The study discovers the lacunae in the existing legal protection for consumers which renders the protection to be inadequate. Hence, the study proposes recommendations to improve and enhance protection for consumers in dealing with Muslim friendly travel agencies.

Malaysia has billion of tourists visiting for business and recreational purposes where 23.6 % of the tourists are Muslims. Therefore, having a righteous hospitality environment that best suit the Muslim tourists are important for their convenience and comfort. There are sharia compliant hotels readily available nowadays however, the guidelines differ and there is a lot of ambiguity in the implementation. The main issue is the hotel room criteria that did not meet up to the sharia compliant specifications, especially rooms that are supposed to cater to two guests. Privacy, room size and furniture layout are the concerning factors that are the most apparent. This research aims to analyse the room space planning for hotel room mainly in the context of sharia compliant requirements. The first objective for this research is to define the criteria of sharia compliant space planning to meet both sharia and international standards. The second research objective is to critically asses the needed factors and components to provide a more conducive space planning option for hotel rooms. The final research objective is to make recommendations for effective hotel room design according to sharia. The research employs a few research methodologies one of which requires the researcher to study on previous researches; secondary data like journals, conference papers, websites and other reliable sources are collected and analysed based on its relevance to the topic. From the information gathered from secondary data which include al-Quran and al-Hadith, characteristics of a sharia compliant hotel room are then recognised. Analyses are conducted on selected samples of sharia compliant hotels in Klang Valley. The characteristics are tested on the chosen hotels and the rooms are analysed to assess if it fits the sharia compliant criteria. Interviews with experts were conducted to further strengthen the findings from previous methodologies and gather their opinions on the importance of the sharia compliant hotel room criteria. Questionnaires were also distributed to get public opinion on room preference and problem faced that may be resolved through sharia compliant concept adaptation. The outcome of the research proves that the existing hotels are not compatible to the sharia teaching. Rooms that are meant to be for two (2) guests cannot accommodate the guest to perform congregational prayer; some rooms do not meet the minimum requirement for hotel rooms as provided by the Tourism Licensing System, whilst some rooms do not protect the privacy of guests. This research covered the topic of space planning in hotel room design that is vital in creating a comfortable space for everyone according to sharia teachings. There are three levels according to maqasid sharia; darruriyat (necessities), hajiyyat (needs) and tahsiniyyat (luxuries), and discussion on the classifications of the sharia compliant characteristics according to the maqasids are recorded. In conclusion, these problems may be solved by increasing the room size for better circulation. The layout of the room should also be considered when planning the room to ensure that the space is optimized without jeopardising the ability of the guests to perform religious practices in the room. Buffer zones and efficient furniture arrangements needs to be implemented to protect the privacy of guests among each other and to the hotel staffs. Lastly, proper implementation of the sharia compliant rules and regulation in the governing or non-governing body may ensure that the idea is carried out responsibly in the hotel premises.

The concept of Muslim-friendly hotels has been discussed since 1982. However, although in Malaysia there are nearly 3000 hotels that contribute to a capacity of about 200,000 rooms, only less than 10% out of that are considered as Muslim-friendly. Consequently, this research sought to create an auditing checklist guideline for Muslim-friendly hotel rooms, which will lead to the understanding of the facilities, services, as well as its elements and requirements. There were three objectives for this research, namely to identify the Islamic elements for a Muslim-friendly hotel room in Malaysia, to develop the audit checklist for Muslim-friendly hotel rooms (AC-MFHR) in Malaysia, and to assess the existing Islamic elements in conventional hotel rooms and in self-proclaimed Muslim-friendly hotel rooms in Malaysia. The followed methodology was literature research, observation and expert reviewed discussions, which were triangulated for validation in qualitative research. By selecting eight hotels as samples, and involving two types of hotel managements, the findings revealed that there are significant differences in the compliance and non-compliance criteria with the Islamic elements in the hotel rooms. They indicated four categories, namely prayer amenities, entertainment, environment, and interior infrastructure. Additionally, there are sixteen Islamic elements for Muslim-friendly hotel rooms, namely adequate praying space, bed and toilet position, decoration, TV channel programming, hygiene and cleanliness, toilet fitted with a bidet shower, Kiblat pointing signage, Qur’an with translation, female prayer garment, information on prayer times, halal toiletries, mini bar, no consumption of non-halal food and beverages, the day and night curtain, and the workable system. Moreover, the extent and availability of existing hotel management of incorporating Muslim-friendly concepts are different. 77% of elements compliance was scored in ‘self-proclaimed’ Muslim-friendly hotels rooms, while conventional hotel rooms received less than 54% of elements compliance. Furthermore, this proposed AC-MFHR was verified through validation by reviewed discussions by experts. Therefore, the developed AC-MFHR has been identified as a key finding to standardise Islamic elements in facilities and services. The results will facilitate improvements in the hotel industry, especially for those who are interested in substituting their hotel management toward the concept of Muslim-friendly hotel rooms.

The consumption of Halal foods and goods is compulsory to all Muslims. Lack of knowledge, awareness and understanding of the Halal concept among Muslims and the manufacturers of Halal products may cause the loss of appreciation to Halal especially in Aquaculture industry. The basic issue in Halal food production is cleanliness, free from ?contamination‘ and healthy food as defined in the Quran. Halal means permissible and lawful while Haram means prohibited. Mashbooh is something questionable or doubtful, either due to the differences in scholars‘ opinions or the presence of undetermined ingredients in a food product. There are many issues on feeding animal with unclean food or unnature feed to the animals. For example issue on the status of catfish (Clarias batrachus, Linnaeus), which fed with filth or najs and catfish (Pangasius hypopthalmus) fed with feed derived from pig organs in several ponds at Batu Gajah, Tronoh and Papan, Perak. In 2010, The Straits Times dated 11 April 2010 reported that there were allegations on employers of catfish in Agrotech Park Smart Jaya, Kuala Selangor state that the non-Malay catfish entrepreneurs feed the waste, carcasses and internal organs of pigs. As in many farms, it is quite common to include a protein supplements in the animal feed. The practice is not limited to major farms, also labelled as factory farms. The protein supplements may be used by farmers who claim to raise their poultry and cattle on the ranges where the animals roam freely, know as free- range farms. These protein supplements are made from slaughterhouse by – products and others ingredients. Additionally, In fiqh, according to Sayyid al-Bakri says in I`anat al-Talibin the technical name for animals that eat impurities are `Jallalah` which is contaminated animals because they eat „Jalla` means contaminant or impurity. From this research, one guideline have been organize for Al-Jallalah animal. It can be used for halal authentication called as ?the standard of Al-Jallalah animal? and measured by physical (changeable, not changeable), structure and protein, external factor (environment), water flow and animal feed. The elements for Jallalah animal is transform, changes, impurity and contaminated. The analysis process that being used in this research is deductive and inductive concept. Deductive is any conceptual from linguistic and meanings taken as definition. Inductive is a conclusion of general ruling which is generated from special fact especially on the problem that do not have the origin from al-Quran and hadith. This study will discuss the concept of Al-Jallalah animals, the elements, its components and the issues related with Al-Jallalah animals also fatwa released by the National Fatwa Council. Hence, it should be emphasized here that the issue of food is an important thing in Islam and must be seriously considered by every individual Muslim because it involves physical and spiritual development

The study pursues to clarify a historical and field study of the development of the halal food industry in Xi`an in the Republic of China and the manifestation and expression of halal awareness among Muslims. This study also demonstrates the concept of halal in Islamic law and examines historical things about halal food and its development in Xi`an; Halal food in Xi`an using the means of questionnaires. It analyzes the factors that affect the halal awareness among Muslims through the results of the questionnaires and then explains the current conditions of the halal food industry in Xi`an. That is to make easy and help provide halal food Chinese Muslim community in Xi`an.

Halal emulsifier has a very high demand in the Halal industry market. The production of emulsifier using enzyme-based strategies provides an alternative solution for conventional emulsifier production. Due to the instability of biocatalyst, immobilization technology has been found to be a powerful tool to improve the performance of enzymes. The aim for this research is to optimize the immobilization conditions for Candida rugosa lipase attachment on poly (glycidyl methacrylate)-grafted-polyethylene/polypropylene microfibrous sheet (PGMA-g-PE/PP) through covalent bonding. A pretreatment was carried out on the polymer prior to immobilization and the amine group density on the chemically modified PGMA-g-PE/PP microfibrous sheet was found to be 3.33 mmol/g. The chemically modified microfibrous sheet was characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to model and optimize the immobilization settings represented by three factors including immobilization time (2-6 h), pH (pH 7-9) and enzyme/support ratio (5.0-9.0 mg/cm2). A well-correlated significant model (p-value = 0.0003) was determined for the residual activity of the immobilized lipase (R2 = 0.9136). The enzymatic activity on p-nitrophenyl palmitate (pNPP) substrate achieved optimum under the conditions of 4.24 hrs, pH 8 and 8.51 mg/cm2 ratio of enzyme/support. The optimal reaction temperature and pH value in enzymatic reaction for both free and immobilized lipase were found to be 45 oC at pH 7 and 55 oC at pH 6, respectively. The pH endurance, storage and thermal stability of the immobilized lipase were remarkably enhanced. The immobilized lipase can be readily recovered and more than 50% of its activity was retained following 10 cycles. The kinetic parameters study showed that both Vmax and KM values were decreased from 0.16 mM/min and 4.69 mM to 0.15 mM/min and 2.86 mM, respectively after immobilization. Lastly, the immobilized lipase was evaluated for monoacylglycerol emulsifier production from Kenaf seed oil. Result showed that monoacylglycerol was detected by GC-TOF/MS. The results of this study suggested that the PGMA-g-PE/PP microfibrous sheet is a promising polymer support for enzyme immobilization with potential for Halal emulsifier production.

It is important for the Muslim-friendly hotels to fully implement Shariah compliance from the entrance to the backdoor. However, Muslim-friendly concepts have not been widely applied by the hotels in Malaysia and therefore, the researcher would like to fill the gaps and conduct a study regarding the facilities of the hotels. The main objectives of this research are to identify entertainments in Islam, to identify entertainments in Muslim-friendly hotels and conventional hotels and to develop criteria for the rating of entertainment elements in hotels. The nature of this research is exploratory and observation studies were performed towards three Muslim-friendly hotels and three conventional hotels with three different star levels, ranging from 3-star hotels to 5-star hotels. Audit checklist was used to garner the data and the confirmation from the experts was collected upon the completion of data collection. The findings of the research resulted in 14 elements that have been the repetition of meaning in the previous research regarding Islamic elements for the entertainment. The highest percentage of 18.87% belonged to Gender Segregation and the lowest percentage belonged to Personal Care as it only encountered two repetitions or citation in literature review (1.89 %). However, the essentiality of each element cannot be observed from the percentage as the levels of maqasid shariah (foundation goals) are deemed more important and reliable. The maslahah (benefit) that needs to be preserved regarding the entertainment at the hotel includes eye care, nutrition or body, property, worship, art and personal safety. The fact that Muslim-friendly Entertainment rules have been widely applied by some of the 3-star to 5-star hotels allows the concept to be seen more believable and applicable by the industry stakeholders. The study was able to provide concrete criteria (fourteen criteria) for the rating of entertainment elements in hotels and the root causes were fully understood by the related stakeholders, both from hotel management side and guests’ side. The criteria are gender segregation, channels/music/displays, halal drink, appropriate dress code, halal food, Akhlaq, no night club and information on prayer times, hygiene, cleanliness and Muslim-friendly personal care. Appropriate decoration - not depicting human or animal form, covered & not dark, safety feature - lifeguard and no gambling are required.

As a global leader in the Islamic tourism, Malaysia recognises the urgent need to lay the best foundation for the sector for its future to grow sustainably. The Islamic Tourism Masterclass – Muslim Friendly Hospitality Services Standard is a capacity building programme jointly organised by Malaysia’s national accreditation body, Department of Standards Malaysia (DSM) and Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC). This collaborative effort aims to engage the tourism players in promoting and guiding them with the practicality and adaptability aspects of the MS2610:2015 Muslim Friendly Hospitality Services – Requirements standard. However, the adoption of the standard requires the limitation in industry practice. One of the limitations is the restriction of alcohol in the hospitality which sparks the argument, discussion and opinion about the unavailability of alcohol services especially in three (3), four (4) and five (5) star hotel. To explore the readiness of 3, 4 and 5-star hotel hoteliers` on alcohol restriction in their premises, quantitative research was chosen. Questionnaires or social surveys were a method used to collect data from 143 respondents. From the study 72.9 % of the respondents ready to adopt alcohol restriction in their premises which consist of 3, 4 and 5-star business hotel. Three-star hotel (100%) is the readiest hotel in implementing non-alcohol policy hotel compared to four stars (53.1%) and five-star hotel (39.1%). The studies on Muslim Friendly Hotel were required to understand the flexibility of Malaysia Standard MS2610:2015: Muslim Friendly Hospitality. Therefore, from the research, the government will gain the information on adaptation of policy development that can bring the product globally. Besides, the related authority can use the information from the research as a basis for practising the policies on their governance area. Moreover, the non-government organisation (NGO) can identify the strength and weaknesses of their services area to be empowered, maintained and repaired towards better services to tourist. Besides, hotelier will reap benefits by improving their knowledge on improving their services quality. Moreover, researchers` alike will utilise the data and finding of this research to solve or finding alternatives for their research and politician and stakeholders will strategise the best solution on supporting the national growth of the economy.

This study aims at exploring the readiness of selected hotels in Malaysia towards adopting the standard of Muslim friendly services. It is conducted due to obscure terms used among hoteliers, different understanding as well as non-standardized implementation among them on the standard services. In addition, there are certain hoteliers even claimed their hotels as Muslim friendly or Islamic hotel, yet appropriate guidelines are not in place. In line with the establishment of the Malaysian Standard, MS2610:2015-Muslim Friendly Hospitality Services-Requirements, a need to explore the readiness of those hotels towards adopting and implementing Muslim friendly service is of paramount importance. In the study, the researcher identified three variables that determined those readiness, i.e.; the awareness and understanding of Muslim friendly concept among hoteliers, the management commitment and capability to fulfill the general as well as specific requirements of Muslim friendly services. Qualitative method comprised of interview with nine hotel staff, two representatives from policy maker and hotel owner association as well as observations were conducted to obtain an insight on the prescribed variables. The study found that the level of awareness among the hoteliers on the requirements of Muslim friendly services was at low level. On the other hand management commitment and capability to observe the requirement remain inadequate. For the specific requirements, these selected hotels are fully conformant, yet further support by the general requirements is still required. The study proposed, the importance of boosting further the awareness and understanding of the standard of Muslim friendly services among hoteliers, strengthening commitment of hotel management to the standard, and enhancing their capability towards implementation of Muslim friendly hotel services to comply with MS2610:2015.

The recent stream of halal industry focuses on the protection of domestic halal market by fortifying halal compliance to cut off discriminately the advance of foreign product. In that regard, the significance of halal logistics has been underestimated so far than others. Even though it is insisted that halal logistics acts as a crucial role in the halal industry, the majority of focus sights are realistically on the commodities prevailingly consumed by the Muslim customers whether it has a qualification with halal certification. But the halal logistics also account for a critical position in the halal industry. Since halal logistics is the initial factor firstly encountering with halal product apart from manufacture flow under halal compliance. In abbreviation, logistics industry is apparently a fundamental resource connecting market and consumer through a conveyance. Particularly, the use of the container for the halal cargoes is the most important component in halal conveyance during the overall process of halal trading. Because anything is not able to be delivered to overseas without proper storage to protect cargo in the period of navigation. Thus, the specific research related to the ocean-container supposed to use for halal cargo is needed for the establishment of an adamant definition for the maintaining halal container. The countries have less infrastructure, notion, and knowledge of the halal industry such as nations which have not settled Islam up as the national religion. Especially, the ultimate purpose of this study is to verify whether current logistic of Korea has possibility able to adjust halal logistics based on MS 2400:1-2010 to present status of Korean logistics with a probability of the acceptance of adopting exclusive container for halal freight. In addition, this research digs the conventional manual having pervaded in current logistics of Korea against halal compliance out through analysis estimating hygiene and safety of container influenced by external elements which are potential contaminant originated from the humidity and propagation of the bacteria, invasion of the insect into a container and evaluating processing and handling cargo related to mixed consolidation without specific classification between halal and Non-halal cargoes, unidentified document having not marked with halal certification such as B/L and C/O, D/O. The total issued factors are supposed to analyze by basing on MS 2400:1-2010.

Seaweed, also known as macroalgae, are plant-like organisms that can be found in marine habitat. Various seaweed species have been gaining the interest of researchers due to the presence of functional bioactive compounds that can be extracted from their biomass. The study was conducted because of major colorants that have been used in the industries are derived from synthetic colorants. It is due to the comparative stability, cost effective and ease of use. Safety of the synthetic colorant usage is still being debated in order to identify the harmful effect towards the consumption. In the present study, three varieties of red macroalgae (Eucheuma denticulatum , Glacilaria tikvahiae and Kappaphycus striatum), a green macroalgae (Caulerpa lentillifera) and one brown macroalgae (Padina pavonica) were selected to determine their chlorophyll and carotenoid content by using UV-Vis spectrophotometer and HPLC, to identify their antioxidant properties by using DPPH scavenging method and antimicrobial activity by using Disc-diffusion method as well as to assess the stability of their natural pigment via CIELab. Characterisation study of the functional groups and volatile compounds in the selected seaweed were performed by using FTIR and GC-TOF/MS instrument. The findings of this research represents the preliminary stage in this study. Overall results for GC-TOF/MS analysis lead to the identification of 37 compounds K. striatum, 32 compounds from in both E. denticulatum and P. pavonica as well as 27 compounds in C. lentillifera and G. tikvahiae. In terms of carotenoid content, P. pavonica contained the highest amount of carotenoid (100.9 ± 14.7 µg/g DW) while G. tikvahiae recorded the lowest value (25.1 ± 9.4 µg/g DW). Meanwhile, individual carotenoid content showed K. striatum had the highest lutein content (38.6 µg/g DW) while P. pavonica showed the lowest lutein content (7.2 µg/g DW). As for zeaxanthin, C. lentillifera (21.3 µg/g DW) showed the highest amount while E. denticulatum (3.6 µg/g DW) showed the lowest result. C. lentillifera also contained the most beta-carotene (10.7 µg/g DW) whereas E. denticulatum had the least amount at (2.4 µg/g DW). Last but not least, violaxanthin was only found in the green seaweed C. lentillifera (8.9 µg/g DW). The total chlorophyll content for C. lentillifera and P. pavonica were comparable at (7.3 µg/g DW) and (7.5 µg/g DW) respectively. In contrast, E. denticulatum recorded the lowest amount of total chlorophyll content at (2.9 µg/g DW). The antioxidant test showed that P. pavonica presented the strongest DPPH activity with percentage of inhibition (i%) of (61.0% ± 0.9) while K. striatum showed the weakest DPPH activity (35.6% ± 1.7). In the antimicrobial test, the strong antimicrobial action was shown by all the seaweed samples toward E. coli and P. aerugenosa. Moderate activity was observed in all seaweed extracts against MRSA and S epidermidis. S. pyogenes and B. subtilis were least affected by all seaweed samples. Besides that, the overall results of the antifungal test demonstrated moderate antifungal action by all seaweed samples towards M. gypseum and Fusarium sp. In the stability study, it was evident that the difference in salinity for every seaweed sample concentration was consistent from week 1 up to week 4. In terms of pH, seaweed colour change were more obvious in acidic condition compared to neutral and alkaline condition. Higher temperature also led to rapid colour changes in seaweed pigments. Finally, it was found that the colour changes in seaweed increased with longer exposure to UVA and UVB. As a conclusion, all the seaweed selected in this study possess bioactive compounds that have the potential to be utilized in various fields.

The modern Malay community today prefers to spend their daily routines in accordance with the current available advancements; be it in terms of education, fashion, food, lifestyle, or health. Currently, traditional knowledge of Malay midwifery practices has been sadly neglected because of the poor transmission of knowledge, and the poor understanding of the importance or benefits it can provide to women. The lack of published research has also caused these practices to disappear. The current research attempted to provide supporting data collection of medicinal plants used in Malay traditional postpartum bath and supportive scientific data based on the identification of the carotenoid content and its antimicrobial activities. Through high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis, all 20 species were found to have at least four individual carotenoid pigments with a relatively high concentration of lutein and β-carotene and lower concentrations of zeaxanthin. The highest amount of lutein was found in Nilam (1488.4±49.6 μg/g DW) and the highest amount of β-Carotene was found in Pisang kelat (405.17±81.20 μg/g DW). The carotenoid extracts were further investigated for its antimicrobial activities against 12 human pathogens using disk diffusion test (Kirby – Bauer Method). Based on the observation made, among 12 strains, S. pyogenes was detected as to be the most inhibited strain with the highest inhibition zone was 18.0 ± 1.0 mm against 1 mg/disc of carotenoid extraction of C. longa. The significant outcome of the research was a new findings of new natural bioactive compound sources as health promoting agents which covers not only the Shariah requirement, but also safety aspects. Moreover, it will preserve the traditional knowledge of Malay traditional bath practices.