Muslims, Jews Must End Barbaric Animal Slaughter Methods
Koran instructions contradictory; seems to favour vegetarianism
Muslim, Jewish organisations react

Muslims and Jews in Britain must be prevailed upon to end the shocking, cruel, and barbaric way they kill animals for meat.

The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), which advises the government on how to avoid cruelty to livestock, has said in a report that the way Kosher and Halal meat is produced causes severe suffering to animals and must be stopped forthwith.

Both the Jewish and Muslim religions demand that slaughter is carried out with a single cut to the throat, rather than the widespread method in the West of stunning with a bolt into the head before slaughter.

End Kosher, Halal Legal Exemption
FAWC said it wants to end the exemption currently allowed for Kosher and Halal meat from the legal requirement to stun animals first. It can take cattle up to two minutes to bleed to death – amounting to an abuse of the animals, FAWC said, quoted on the BBC News website.

“This is a major incision into the animal and to say it doesn’t suffer is quite ridiculous,” the BBC website quoted Dr Judy Clark, FAWC chairwomen, as saying.

It is not clear exactly why Muslims, for instance, kill their livestock in this way, although they claim it is based on the teachings in the Koran.

Cut The Throat While Facing Mecca
The method insists on the cut to the throat, while the animal faces Mecca.

A strict reading of the Koran though suggests that eating any meat at all is against Islam.

The relevant passage of the Koran reads: "Forbidden to you (for food) Are: Dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of another than Allah”.

But it then goes on to say that if you’re hungry it doesn’t matter anyway and you can eat whatever meat you like. The Koran doesn’t actually spell out how animals should be killed.

Perhaps the Halal treatment has been dreamt up to get around the idea that “dead meat” is forbidden, and that killing in this way means that you are somehow not eating “dead” meat?

No Scientific Purpose
Whatever the reason, it clearly fulfils no scientific purpose and should be stopped. It is a medieval method based on an outdated tradition with no basis in scientific fact, or any practical use at all.

After the news today that FAWC called for this cruel killing method to stop, Muslim and Jewish organisations were appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in high dudgeon. They said the method was humane and forcing its change an insult to their religion.

Host Culture Outraged
But surely this is an area where Muslims and Jews should make gestures and concessions in deference to the host culture, which finds this practice barbaric, uncivilised and unacceptable.

Surely this isn’t asking too much. It isn’t as though the medical or dietary benefits of causing unnecessary suffering to animals which die in agony while facing Mecca can be very high. The Koran is contradictory on the point anyway.

Neil Winton, June 10, 2003

I asked Muslim and Jewish organisations to justify their methods of killing animals for meat. I sent this e-mail to the Board of Deputies of British Jews
I would appreciate the help of one of your experts to explain the thinking behind so-called Kosher meat.

I would attention you to a story appearing on my website – www.wintonsworld.com - headed “Muslims, Jews Must End Barbaric Animal Slaughter Methods”. This story resulted from the news on the BBC and other media on June 10 following the report from The Farm Animal Welfare Council.

In the interests of fairness I would appreciate answers to the following questions to help satisfy my readers –

1. What is the scientific justification for Kosher killing?

2. How did the practise begin? Why was it thought to make sense to use this slower method of killing?

3. Isn’t this Kosher method really just a historic hangover, which has lost its purpose as the centuries have rolled by?

4. If (3) is true, would you feel able to end this method in Britain, given that it causes serious offence amongst the host population?

I’d appreciate your reply. I will of course post it on wintonsworld.com in full and without editing.

I received this reply -

“Thankyou for your enquiries. The short answers to your questions are as follows:

1) The Kosher method of slaughter is designed to minimise pain and suffering.Jewish laws are concerned to promote kindness to all living creatures. Shechita is entirely consistent with those principles, by killing animals in as humane. painless and swift a manner as possible.

2) The method is certainly not slower: Shechita is carried out by a trained Shochet who kills the animal with a single swift stroke which causes an immediate massive and irreversible drop in blood pressure that results in unconcsciousness, and thus the capacity to feel pain, within seconds.

3)Shechita is far from being a historic hangover. Many government inspectors, vets and scientists have said that they are satisfied that it is at least as humane as any other method of slaughter.

4) If it is the case (which I do not accept) that people are offended--I am also part of the "host population"-- this is largely due to ignorance and distortion of the true facts. It is equally a fact that the number of animals who die in pain and are fully conscious after mis-stunning far exceeds the total number of animals killed by Shechita.Shechita is a fundamental religious right of the Jewish community, and there is certainly no valid case for its abolition.

Neville Nagler

Director General”

I asked the Muslim Council of Britain the following questions –

I would appreciate the help of an expert from the Muslim Council of Britain to explain the thinking behind so-called Halal meat.

I would attention you to a story appearing on my website – www.wintonsworld.com - headed “Muslims, Jews Must End Barbaric Animal Slaughter Methods”. This story resulted from the news on the BBC and other media on June 10 following the report from The Farm Animal Welfare Council.

In the interests of fairness I would appreciate answers to the following questions to help satisfy my readers –

1. What is the scientific justification for Halal killing?

2. How did the practise begin? Given the instructions in the Koran, why was it thought to make sense to use this slower method of killing?

3. Why was it thought necessary to make the animal face Mecca?

4. Isn’t this Halal method really just a historic hangover, which has lost its purpose as the centuries have rolled by?

5. If (4) is true, would you feel able to end Halal in Britain, given that it causes serious offence amongst the host population?

6. Do you agree that the Koran instructions are contradictory? The relevant section starts with the exhortation to avoid “dead meat”, suggesting vegetarianism, and ends up saying that if people are starving, then these instructions can be avoided. In other words, in a perfect world, Muslims should avoid eating meat, but if they need meat for sustenance, then it is ok?

7. Give this wording to avoid “dead meat” doesn’t Islam urge its followers to be vegetarians if possible?

I’d appreciate your reply. I will of course post it on wintonsworld.com in full and without editing.

So far, I’ve had no reply.

But the Muslim Council of Britain website -www.mcb.org.uk – has posted some reaction to the FAWC report.

Stunning Animals Prior To Slaughter Is Unacceptable, Say UK Muslims

The British Muslim community views with serious concern recent reports that the Farm Animal Welfare Council intends next month to recommend that the Government outlaws the religious Islamic and Jewish method of slaughtering animals.

"The stunning of animals prior to their slaughter is an unacceptable requirement to both British Muslims and Jews. Numerous medical studies have shown that stunning leads to the retention of a significant amount of blood in the meat and is the cause of death in some animals before slaughter. The consumption of blood and the meat of animals which have died before slaughter is clearly prohibited in Islam as it is harmful," said Mr Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

Dr Ahmad al-Dubayan, the Director of the Islamic Cultural Centre, London's largest mosque, voiced his support for the MCB's position and said: "The Islamic Halal method is a humane and Divinely-ordained injunction which is binding on all Muslims. We hope that others will not seek to interfere with our most basic beliefs and customs."

[Ends]

“The consumption of blood and the meat of animals which have died before slaughter is clearly prohibited in Islam as it is harmful," said Mr Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

This quote seems typical of the tortuous, contradictory and confused thought process used to justify this outdated and barbaric practice. Another press release from the MCB talks about its “religious code of practice, prescribed over 1,400 years ago” as though the length of time it has existed is a good thing, and that nothing useful could have been learned in the meantime.

I’m relying on the FAWC to press home with their avowed intention of outlawing this terrible cruelty.

Neil Winton, June 23, 2003


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