This post is not intended to offend, it's an expression of my opinion. If you don't like it, leave a comment and I'll see to it that nothing is done. =)
I have done my best to get the facts right but don't quote me on this as some bits may be inaccurate. If they are leave a comment and I'll change it.
So you're probably wondering what I'm going to say considering the title is Islamic Takeover, It's nothing major just their HALAL food which, to be honest, seems to be everywhere. You can't go to any place for food or grocery shopping without getting halal food. Be it halal at your KFC, tomato sauce with the halal logo or HFA approved bread. I find it annoying and disrespectful of other people's eating habits. Jewish people immigrated to England well before Muslims and they didn't turn all the meat kosher so I don't see why everything is turning halal now.
The reason I find it annoying is it's method of production. Halal meat is meat that has no blood and is killed in the name of Allah. It has no blood because the creature is slaughtered in such a way that the heart has time to pump out all of the blood with usually 3 or 4 cuts to the main veins. The animal effectively bleeds to death.
That's not all, during the death, the person recites certain parts of the Qur'an over the creature (the tasmiya or shahada)
Cruel Much?
Another reason I am against halal meat is religion. In the Sikh religion it is forbidden to eat meat that has not been killed with one strike. This means that the animal dies instantly with little or no pain and no prolonged suffering. This is how, in my opinion, it should be done.
However, there is some debate amongst groups of people who believe the halal meat isn't actually halal but just a label for extra sales. They say that British laws state that the animals to be killed aren't allowed to suffer for any prolonged period and that the animals are killed instantly. The meat actually has to be stunned first, via electrocution or a bolt through the head prior to killing.
The meat is then sent to certain places to be "halalified", the same cuts are made and the Qur'an is placed on a loop on a cassette player. As many places do this to make halal meat it would be a violation of the rules as the animal has to be alive when it is slaughtered. And although the Muslim (and Jewish) communities are exempt from a section of the law that required all animals to be stunned before they are slaughtered, many people just use the method mention previously where they simply buy the meat pre-killed. So they say.
So although I don't know whether the food is actually halal, the fact that people claim it is, have it certified and have it checked pretty much makes it. The problem with asking the staff is that they think you want halal food and so say that it is for the sale which is wrong in itself.
Overall, I respect that the Muslim community can only eat halal food and so many places are adapting to this by buying halal meat and groceries from their suppliers. My only wish would be that they still bought the NON-HALAL food thus giving people the OPTION of whether they want halal food or not. It wouldn't cost extra. They could just buy a small amount initially and have everything clearly labelled that there is an option, see how it goes and get stock through sale projections over a 6 week period. Now if they had that from the start, I wouldn't be writing this post, I wouldn't have the headache of asking if the meat is halal or not and I probably wouldn't have converted to vegetarianism.
In the end, Freedom of Choice is all I ask for.
Sources:
Wikipedia
http://www.shariahprogram.ca/eat-halal-foods/islamic-guidelines-slaughtering-animals.shtml
http://www.quran-islam.org/articles/halal_meat_(P1156).html
http://www.cometoislam.com/halalmeat.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/uk_1.shtml
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/731/contents/made
http://www.rspca.org.uk/allaboutanimals/farm/slaughter/factfile
http://www.halalfoodauthority.co.uk/definitionhalal.html
Based on British laws, and the 'halalification' of the animals after electrocution may be what happens where some of the meat comes from, but that isn't actually halal, because it isn't the right way of doing things, It is widely rumored that KFC do things like that which makes things complicated. So there seems to be some corrupt halal certifiers around.
ReplyDeleteYeah, for it to be fully halal it has to be alive when slaughtered. I'm pretty sure it says in the Qur'an too that you are allowed to eat meat made by Christians and Jewish people, as long as Allah's name is mentioned before eating and if that's true then you can make any food halal.
ReplyDeleteNow 'Any Food' is definitely wrong, as there are some foods that you can't do anything to make them halal eg. Pork.
ReplyDeleteI apologise, I forgot about that particular rule.
DeleteIm going to take a scientific approach here and play devils advocate.
ReplyDeleteFrom what i have experienced, these are the two main issues surrounding Non-Halal eaters who wont eat halal meat:
1. Their religious belief condemns eating Halal Meat
2. The animal is not killed in a less humane manner to that of a Non Halal animal slaughter.
Ill talk about point 2. first as its simpler; As far as i know in the UK any meat that is prepared as Halal is actually killed in the exact same manner as any Non-Halal meat apart from the religious prayer that is cast.
As for point 1, the Sikh religion tells us that we should not eat Halal Meat, but if you look deeper into this you will find that this is an identity issue. In the time of the Gurus, there was much conflict between the Sikhs and Muslims and the Gurus wanted Sikhs to be identifiable in a "crowd", hence the distinctive 5K's that are worn (yes they other meanings too, but this is one of them). So by not eating Halal meat, which Muslims feel so strongly about, it kept Sikhs well away from sharing any identity with a Muslim.
On top of that, the prayers sung over the animal are/were believe/d to have an impact on the body of a non halal eater in a spiritual sense which the Sikhs of course did not want. Up till today this is one of the things that most hurts a Sikh person eating Halal meat as it has been blessed with a Islamic prayer.
Coming back to my scientific approach, of course you can say that the molecular structure of that piece of meat has no impact form a prayer, in the same way i can say that Sikh Amrit water has no change from regular water.
So in conclusion, taking the point that the prayer has no effect on the animal and that the killing of the animal is no difference to a Non halal meat produce, why are people afraid/uncomfortable eating Halal Meat.
I have this debate many times, and a point made is that why should Sikhs change the way they eat for another religious belief, a valid point. Muslims stick to Halal meat and a very tiny majority would stray from that, but in other religions is much the opposite.
What you have to think about is, that is the way you eat and dress more important than the way you act and behave?
This post is in the view of an Athiest.
Thanks for reading, I'll reply in the same order.
DeleteHalal meat is killed slightly differently from non halal meat - it's not stunned pre slaughter and they're supposed to make more cuts to specific blood vessels
(http://www.halalfoodauthority.co.uk/definitionhalal.html)
Muslims have to make sure that the animal is alive and well before it is killed and some stunning methods are irreversible therefore not meeting the criteria.
For point one, I don't think it was the Guru's who banned halal meat but it's in Section Six of the Sikh Rehat Maryada (Code of Conduct) which the Guru's didn't have any part in.
I can see how the Sikh's didn't want the spiritual effect
from eating halal meat but I think that they just didn't want to eat meat that was killed in the name of God but I can't find a particular reason why. It might be something to do with, if they want to eat and animal, they should just eat it. Not eat it in the name of God.
Yeah the molecular structure will be the same and probably the main reason people don't want to eat halal meat is their upbringing. Their parents will have told them stories about why they shouldn't and then they just don't on those particular beliefs.
Sikh's shouldn't have to change the way they eat which is why there should be an option of what type of meat there is, and back in the Guru Gobind days, the could just go out and kill their own meat and eat it. They didn't have a problem where all the meat around was already halal so it is slightly different now.
Overall, the way you act and behave in life towards all living beings is what the Guru Granth Sahib says is most important thing in life. But at the same time, what you eat and the way you dress can affect the way you act and behave in your life. A similar situation would be if they only made clothes out of pure leather, I would want a choice and wouldn't want to wear them for moral and animal welfare issues.
Yeah i agree with your point in terms that why should Sikhs have to change the way they eat for others, well nobody should really have to change for someone elses beliefs. But as you agreed with me the molecular structure of that meat is exactly the same so if its more the method of killing thats a problem, check this out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.halalmc.net/news_events/hmc_news/05-05-09.html
There are 2 halal certifiers, most Muslims disregard this because places like KFC taste good and they want KFC, they got a halal poster so thats good enough for them lol. This is what Nadir meant by corrupt Halal Authorities i believe, however HFA was born in early 90s, and HMA early 2000's. Most Musilms disregard this aspect in the UK atleast.
Youll notice that majority of Halal restaurants are actually complying with HFA, in fact most of the world does, why? Because its cheaper to be HFA certified, machine killing in one swipe, recorded prayers on tapes and no Muslims watching the killings.
So now the only difference between "halal" meat and ordinary meat is that a prayer tape was played whilst the killing commenced, should Sikhs or anyone still feel bad to eat Halal meat?
Unless you are buying from a halal butcher or an Islamic restaurant, its very unlikely they are using true Halal rules (HMC).
Reading the Six of the Sikh Rehat Maryada it says you must avoid: Eating the meat of an animal slaughtered the Muslim way.
So what is the "muslim way"? And if a restaurant is only HFA certified would that still be a problem for eating "halal" meat, eventhough technically it isnt the "muslim way"? To me its kind of a solution in itself, especially from a business point of view.
People should do their own research into religion, a lot of whats passed from your parents is pretty inaccurate, in the end its just what they've been told by their parents and so on, like a game of Chinese whispers.
I agree with your point, a killing should not be done in the name of one that is supposed to be the utmost honest/pure/innocent, that doesnt make sense to me.
It brings me on to another point, people dont have a problem eating meat, a killing of an animal at the end of the day, but wont eat halal, isnt the killing of the animal a bigger issue? Its like me saying its fine to break into someones house, as long as you dont steal anything.... At the root you have bad intentions, anything that follows shouldnt take priority.
Ah that's quite interesting, it's true that most of the places then are not actually halal but the fact that they state that they are will put people who don't want halal meat off. If someone actually caused a big fuss about this stating that the meat isn't actually halal so it's okay for us to eat it and not okay for Muslims to eat it then I'm sure there would be a major drop in income for the fast food places and so they'd want to change the system, presumably to the HMC way.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah most of what is passed is inaccurate but it's what most believe in and usually can't be bothered to verify it. Who would think that their parents are telling them things that might not be true right?
Yeah that is true, that's the bigger issue but most people are brought up on meat and accept it into their life. A lot of those people won't think about the actual killing of the animal and the way it was living prior to death. But at the same time all life comes from water so there's not point in debating whether it is better to be a vegetarian, as one of the Guru's said.