EVER since witnessing – as a 12-year-old – the sickening slaughter of calf by a rabbi who slit the animal’s throat and impassively watched it in its death throes, I have sworn off religiously-slaughtered meat, and have gone to great lengths to avoid all kosher and halal produce.
So you can imagine my disgust when – a couple of weeks back – the BBC Radio 4 consumer affairs programme, You and Yours, reported – in an overall tone of approval – that an increasing number of supermarkets in the UK were stocking ritually-slaughtered meat to sweeten their Muslim clientele. The programme contained not one word of criticism of this barbaric form of slaughter.
But then came the backlash. Last Friday You and Yours reported that it had received a substantial number of emails and letters from people deeply concerned that halal meat was entering our food chain. I, of course, was one of the many who emailed the BBC to complain.
According to You and Yours, halal meat “accounts for around a quarter of the UK’s meat trade”. When Muslim’s make up only three percent of the UK population it follows that a good deal of this meat is finding its way into institutional catering operations and food outlets not trading as halal establishments.
This is quite unacceptable.
Tim Buckley of Suffolk was one of those who complained to the BBC:
Nowhere was the point put that halal meat produce involves unnecessary cruelty. The animals have their throats cut when conscious ….
And Dale Godfrey said:
I think many people who quietly note the rise of in halal meat, especially in public catering, would be horrified if they realised what this meant in terms of animal welfare.
You and Yours spoke to Masood Khawaja of the Halal Food Authority, who gave an assurance that “slight electronic stunning” is permitted in halal slaughter.
The animal is only stunned to be immobilised. The animal should not be dead prior to slaughter (sic). All the flowing blood should be drained out of the animal because flowing blood is not allowed in Islam.
He pointed out that a Muslim prays over the animal at the point of stunning and slaughter.
So that’s OK then.
But You and Yours also made clear that “not all animals are stunned prior to slaughter”.
There is a debate in the Muslim community as to what constitutes halal meat. Some groups like the Halal Monitoring Committee do not consider stunned animals to be truly halal.
It is legal to kill unstunned animals in European Union countries because religious exemptions have been put in place to accommodate the dietary requirements of Muslims and Jews. This is outrageous, and just another sickening example of how groups can get special treatment simply by playing the religion card.
You and Yours asked the Food Standards Agency whether there was a requirement to indicate that meat is halal, and this is the answer it received:
If a meat product is labeled and marketed to a consumer as halal, the animal would have to have been slaughtered using this method. If the meat is not intended for the halal market, there is no law that requires the method of slaughter to be on the label.
This no doubt means that institutions such as hospitals, schools and prisons would rather ALL their meat be halal. This would be more cost effective than having to cater separately for Muslims, but such a policy is a clear violation of the rights of those who do not want to consume halal produce.
Finally, what do you do if, like me, you are passionate about curry, but don’t want halal meat?
The choice is to prepare your own, bite on the bullet and go vegetarian – or walk into a restaurant and demand pork!
According to You and Yours the majority of Indian restaurants in the UK are Bangladeshi-run, and Bangladeshis are Muslims. The programme suggested that between 70 percent and 99.9 percent of these establishments serve halal meat.
Depressing, ain’t it?
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
