Since the beginning of the migrant crisis in Europe, the number of refugees, the majority of whom are Muslims, has been steadily growing, leading to divisions within the European Union over issues such as national security, border control, asylum policy, the EU refugee quota system, etc.

In April of this year, the American company Mondelez that owns Toblerone reportedly decided to certify the world famous Swiss chocolate as halal. It became public only in December after an article in the Swiss newspaper Blick was published, sparking heated public debate.

After the changes in the policy by the company that produces Toblerone was revealed, it was not only politicians who took note, but social media users as well. The latter started intense discussions on Twitter under the hashtag #BOYCOTTTOBLERONE.

While the majority of Twitter users were outraged by the decision of Toblerone's parent company, Mondelez.

Valérie Moens, a Mondelez spokesperson later explained that the halal certification doesn't imply that the product itself will change as Toblerone satisfied the halal-criterion before the official certification, according to the Huffington Post.

The translation of word "halal" is Arabic for "permissible", and is used by Muslims to verify whether the product satisfies various Islamic requirements. The halal certification procedure in turn reportedly implies that the products produced have to be approved by imams.

Since the beginning of the European refugee crisis the number of individuals seeking asylum has significantly increased and was estimated at 25.8 million (4.9% of the overall population) of Europe as of mid-2016, according to the Pew Research Center.