Muslim rights advocates in California are frustrated by a proposed state regulation on some slaughterhouses that would reportedly violate some people’s religious beliefs.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture is considering increasing food safety regulations that would in part order custom slaughterhouses to first stun animals before a nonemployee can come in and cut the animal’s throat.
“In general, Muslims aren’t supposed to eat meat that was stunned because halal requirements prohibit stunning,” said Zahra Billoo, the Bay Area’s executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Many Muslims believe for an animal to be slaughtered in accordance with the Quran, it must be killed by cutting its throat with a long sharp blade, causing it to bleed to death. The animal cannot be rendered unconscious or killed beforehand, the council wrote in a letter to the Department of Food and Agriculture after notice was given about the proposed regulation.
Workers at custom halal slaughterhouses don’t typically stun animals before they bleed them to death. But as part of the annual celebration of Eid al-Adha, or “festival of sacrifice,” many Muslims are required to kill animals themselves, Billoo said. It these cases, the new regulation would require the animal to be stunned.
“We don’t think there is anything ‘Islamophobic’ ” about the regulation, Billoo said. “It’s just misguided.”
While reviewing the proposal, the Department of Food and Agriculture conducted an economic impact assessment and did not find significant potential effects to business due to the rule.
The department did not, however, say if religious beliefs were taken into consideration.