halal meat

i’ve had a number of enquires recently regarding what halal meat is exactly, and was wondering what all the fuss was suddenly about. a quick internet search revealed an alarming number of articles protesting against halal meat. it didn’t make sense to me at first. surely halal meat doesn’t concern anyone but Muslims ie the people who are eating it?

but with increasing subway chains opting for the halal option, and univeristies and suprmarkets considering  doing the same thing, more and more people are eating halal food without actually knowing what it is.

in these situations, i always try and look at  from the “other” side. i can understand the fear that this would cause if the meat you’re used to eating everyday suddenly has a foreign sounding word in front of it. Plus,  it’s associated with the Muslims, which is always worrying these days (slaughtering animals, slaughtering people..)  slaughter does sound more  horrific then simply stunning them. all that blood everywhere…

so, the reason people don’t want to eat halal meat is based on ethics? ie the halal method is inhumane. i think such fears can be quashed by people willing to listen and who are genuinely worried about animal welfare. if not, it just seems the problem goes beyond the halal meat debate and is just fear of anything Muslim.

slaughtering the animal, as i understand it,  is done by one sharp clean cut. if done correctly, the animal does not suffer as one clean cut leads to blood loss from the head. the blood is then free to flow from the body, making it more hygienic to eat. although it might look horrific, letting the blood drain isn’t painful, just like donating blood isn’t.

opponents of this argument believe that stunning the animal is more humane and more modern. the technology wasn’t available in the old days, and this is yet another example of how religion is failing to keep up with the times.

i don’t know much about stunning, maybe it doesn’t lead to the animal suffering more than necessary (IF it’s done correctly – what if the voltage is too high or not high enough), but the main concern seems to be to produce a lot of meat quickly, rather than the animal’s welfare.

if halal butchering is done correctly, there should be no other animals present to witness the suffering, and the animal should be given something to eat just before the event takes place. care should be taken to ensure the animal is comfortable at all times, and a prayer is said just before the act is carried out.

at the end of the day, Muslims are obligated to follow laws for making food halal.  and that’s why we do it, simple as. i just have trust and faith that as a humane religion, suffering to the animal will be kept to a minimum and my research has only confirmed this.

like i said, i can understand where the fear of something unknown would come from. i can definitely understand why vegetarians and animal right activists would be concerned, and i think we just need to be patient and encourage people to do their own research instead of following the hype.  it’s just amusing that the same people who went to the effort to protest against this  probably went home on the same day for a kebab or a curry at their local takeout…