Jump to content
IGNORED

Furor over halal meat in British supermarkets/restaurants


Brightonbelle

Recommended Posts

The Daily Hate is probably short of news, but here it is:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... el-it.html

whilst I can kind of see the point of the objections, this has naturally brought all the closet racists out on my facebook feed who are spewing anti-Muslim vitriol under the guise of concern for animal welfare.

I don't often post here but thought this may be of interest!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Daily Hate is probably short of news, but here it is:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... el-it.html

whilst I can kind of see the point of the objections, this has naturally brought all the closet racists out on my facebook feed who are spewing anti-Muslim vitriol under the guise of concern for animal welfare.

I don't often post here but thought this may be of interest!

Ok, I see why the Brits here call it the Daily Fail. That was a painful read. "Takeover"? Really? Plus, you either identify all MPs by religion, or none.

For Sikhs, this is a legitimate issue. I don't, however, see how this is a concern of the Church of England.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I care about the stunning information, and the animal cruelty concerns, otherwise, couldn't give a damn. But then as a vegetarian this does not effect me at all, food wise, though I eat halal cheese and stuff and don't even care. And yeah the Daily Fail, is like the Weekly World News meets Fox News, lots of crazy and lots of agendas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apart from the animal welfare angle, I prefer to eat food that is produced without any religious mumbo jumbo involved, or without a certification that companies have to pay for and we have no idea how the money is used.

As far as I understand, halal slaughter require that the staff in the abbattoir are muslim and I don't like religious discrimination so that alone is a turn off for me.

I wouldn't buy a chicken with a cross on it either if that meant that 1. only members of /insert Christian church/ can apply for the jobs in the abbattoir 2. money had been paid to the church's organization to get the cross certification to put on the labels and 3. the church uses the money to lobby against issues that I support (gay rights or women's rights for example).

In general I don't like when the brands I buy get involved with different charities or organisations because I don't have the time or energy to research what they stand for or how they spend their money and I don't want to be an unvoluntary sponsor of a cause that I don't support.

I guess that a lot of Americans boycott Chick-fil-A for similar reasons?

I also think that it's legitimate to critique the restaurants for not informing the costumers that they are using halal meat. Sikhs are apparently not allowed to eat it but now they probably have, without knowing.

Can you the imagine the uproar if a restaurant had been serving pork to muslims without informing them? Good thing sikhs are peaceful so the pizza chain doesn't have to face death threats or bomb threats.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read the DF often for their stunning photographs (They literally have the best pics for news on the web), but their method(s) of journalism are downright dangerous, and lately I have found myself wondering if even the photographs are worth it.

Basically, they manipulate their readers into hate-mongering, supporting certain political groups, and furthering the "newspaper's" various agendas.

Their news is always one-sided, lacking the critical facts of a story for the purposes of vilifying or glorifying certain public figures. Other times, their journalism is downright sloppy and includes mistakes, errors, and omissions by accident.

In fact, I have literally seen them sway the opinions of their readers on a particular issue or person back and forth like a pendulum with complete ease from one article to the next. I think they do it for fun because they can.

Anyways, the fact that they succeed so easily at what they do is terrifying to me, and they are gaining more readers on an international platform by the minute. Not a good news source. Try Al Jazeera instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16strong, yes the DM are certainly not reliable to say the least however this has been reported elsewhere too.

It seems to be a blatant attempt to stir up anti-Muslim sentiment by playing up the animal welfare angle. Nevertheless *if* it's all true it raises some interesting questions about food labelling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/may/07/halal-meat-restaurant-menus-humane-slaughter?CMP=fb_gu

just for another view other than the fail!

NB I believe they play tapes of Muslim prayer, so not all employees need to be Muslim.

Not all employeea need to be Muslim. Technically you just need one to recite the prayer prior to slaughter and after that it doesn't matter if you're Muslim or not. Where I am on Eids we have a local butcher shop do all the butchering after the animal is killed and not a single one of the butchers is Muslim. It's when you get the fundies involved that they want everyone to be Muslim but technically it doesn't have to be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ZOMG in between this and that one Muslim lady who asked not to ring a bottle of booze through her till, Al-Quaida are like, totally taking over Britain!

As usual, the Daily Mash has the best comment on this. http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/soci ... 4050886381

Also love how the Fail is suddenly really, really concerned about the rights of British Sikhs on this one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dare I point out that North American consumers could very well be eating meat and poultry killed by kosher slaughtering, and that's never been an issue for anyone?

Only the front part of the cow is used for the kosher market. The back half goes to the general market. In addition, if there is any reason that the animal doesn't qualify for the kosher market (such as having adhesions on the lungs), it goes to the general market. The stuff sold to the general market wouldn't be labelled kosher, because technically it isn't.

The supermarkets and restaurants in Britain weren't doing anything wrong. They still identified the meat as beef, lamb, etc. and it was legally fit for consumption. In the absence of specific labeling or laws, you really don't know the entire back story to your food. That's why labels for organic, fair trade, peanut-free, etc. exist - because if those things are important to you, you can't just make assumptions about regular products.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is something I'm supposed to worry about? I buy most of my poultry from a small farmer near here. He sells to quite a few families who keep kosher. He has free range organically fed chickens, ducks, and turkeys along with their eggs. I should expect him to keep kosher poultry and regular poultry? This is a guy who will let you go pick out the chicken or turkey you want on the run.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of this is an attempt to put a respectable face on islamophobia or antisemitism. As a meat eater no one has yet to be able to sell me bullshit that kosher or halal slaughter is some order of magnitude worse than stunning. There is so much wrong with how we raise meat at the industrial level, and I am supposed to get more bent about 2 minutes at the time of throat slitting than I am about the 6 months of industrial life cycle horror. Come on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.