These events always remind me of cooking. You put selected ingredients together, and although you have some idea of how it is going to taste, you really don’t know until the meal is served. And of course the audience brings an unpredictable array of additional flavors and spices that mix and simmer throughout the day.

The Muslim market, or Halal market (because it has huge areas of overlap) is an emerging global market force. Many of the world’s largest corporations and many of the world’s governments have recognised the economic and political significance of this new commercial paradigm.

And while many would argue that its all about the huge consumer markets and cash-flows of the Middle East or South East Asia, I have long held the opinion that some key components of this market force will come from the minority markets of America and Europe.

This is not just a numbers game; it is also about harnessing the ideas, the expertise and the passion to bring about new collaborative dynamics that will catalyze this new market paradigm. These key ingredients are to be found, in abundance, in the USA.

The AMCC event was the first of its kind – anywhere – to look at this market from the perspective of reaching the target consumers, and the topic was approached from all sides. Both Muslim and non-Muslim speakers unfolded their perspectives on the issues at hand, and while their perspectives varied, there was the common thread… we are seeing something powerful coming into view.

For me there were some key take-aways:

• Michael Hastings-Black’s array of cultural reference points on the ‘identity politics’ of this new market, showing, from the outside if you like, how the Muslim American identity is finding its place in popular American culture – and therefore in the market.

• Crescent Foods President Ahmad Adam’s passionate call for integrity thoughout the entire Halal production process, from idea to ingestion. All too often these words have a slightly hollow ring, but here you could recognise that we are witnessing the unfolding of a new Islamic corporate identity, built on putting the highest of values into action in the marketplace.

• Shahed Amanullah’s slide showing the map of the real-time inquiries from the zabihah.com iPhone app, pinpointing all the Halal restaurant searches along the East coast of the US, was real eye-opener. Not just because of the density of all those little pins, but because here we could see unfolding before our eyes the research of tomorrow. His graph of the growth of Halal restaurants in the USA over the last 10 years is heading, literally, through the roof.

• DinarStandard’s founder Rafiuddin Shikoh gave a strategic analysis of the dynamics of this market. The high calibre of this analysis could not have been produced by any of the ‘big name’ market analysts; they may have the tools, but they do not have the insight. There is a new league of experts with a profound understanding of this market phenomenon. If the words of the old song, “you know something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is…’ ring true for you in any way, then pay attention to DinarStandard.com, and start reading between the lines.
  

• Muxlim.com is showing every sign of becoming a leading force in shaping a new wave of social media for the Muslim world, and the potential impact of this, while hard to predict, is likely to be significant.

• Adnan Durani brought drive and high energy to the podium, and we wait with interest to see his gameplan unfold for the American Halal Corporation. If it is anything like what he did with Stoneyfield Farm organic yoghurt, it will be worth the wait. Watch this space.
  

• Perhaps the most telling question of the day was raised by Time correspondent Carla Power, who, after taking us on a guided tour of the global Halal market landscape, asked, “Can the Muslim consumers change the political and social landscape?” For me, this is where the real question lies. And the answer is Yes!
  

There is no doubt that this is a big market. It is now being driven by government policies, corporate market-share ambitions, and a favourable social and economic climate. Almost a third of the world’s population are now emerging as a ‘market demographic - albeit a complex one, but with core values that are shared by many of the other two-thirds!

This is where the Islamic Sharia meets the marketplace, and in a way that Islamic Finance could never do, the Halal market is going to become a place of newly defined shared values; values that are Divinely inspired, and deeply human in application.

At the AMCC there was a high level of shared awareness that this is the real issue. The articulation and application of this deep understanding is going to be at the cutting edge of this unfolding market paradigm.

So, as an important footnote, I would like to applaud and thank the organizers of the AMCC for their smooth and highly professional handing of the event. And as I said at the beginning…better book early for the AMCC 2010!

Abdalhamid Evans, Senior Analyst