British Muslims are battling over animal rights and calls for an end to halal slaughter in the country. It comes on the heels of a push to end the Jewish and Muslim traditional means of slitting an animals throat in order to allow the blood to flow completely out of the animals body.
Professor Bill Reilly, former president of the British Veterinary Association, called for curbing the practice of slaughtering animals without stunning.
“Non-stun slaughter … appears to be increasing. From an animal welfare perspective this cannot be acceptable,” Reilly said.
“However, we are fortunate to live in a tolerant society and respect the religious beliefs of different faiths and must reconcile animal welfare with religious freedom.
“In my view, the current situation is not acceptable and, if we cannot eliminate non-stunning we need to keep it to the minimum,” he added.
“This means restricting the use of Halal and Kosher meat to those communities that require it for their religious beliefs and, where possible, convincing them of the acceptability of the stunned alternatives.”
Reilly’s opinion was published recently in the journal Veterinary Record, On Islam website reported on Saturday.
But Muslims in the country are split over the calls, with the majority claiming it is an attack against Islam. London-based Islamic leader Sheikh Usman Pranjet told Bikyamasr.com in an email that he believes the push to end Islamic halal slaughter is an attempt to force Muslims out.
“It is a blatant excuse to attack Muslims in the name of animal rights, because we know that this is the most humane way of slaughter,” he argued. “And this is what Islam tells Muslims to do.”
However, others, including Muslim animal welfare activist Sanjeev Mohamed, argued that in today’s modern world, there is no need to maintain “archaic methods” that do unwanted harm and cause suffering.
“We live in a time when technology and advancements has made animal welfare an important issue, and we Muslims need to reexamine the way we treat animals,” Mohamed said.
He argued that during the Prophet’s time, “meat was not consumed in multiple meals daily, not even everyday, so this is getting away from Islam anyway, so we need to get back to the basics of animals and Islam and the way of killing is simply wrong.”
British ministers have sought to change a law to ensure that meat slaughtered using Islamic (halal) methods cannot be sold without proper labeling.
The Daily Mail reported in April that “unwitting members of the public” in Britain are being served halal meat “secretly” in schools, hospitals, pubs and famous sporting venues, claiming that many in Britain, including animal rights campaigners, deem the traditional Islamic way of preparing meat as “cruel.”
Halal meat now accounts for 25 percent of the entire UK meat market, according to Reilly. But his figures have been challenged by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) which put the number of slaughtered halal animals at much smaller percentage.
“The results indicate that the number of animals not stunned prior to slaughter is relatively low, accounting for 3 percent of cattle, 10 percent of sheep and goats, and 4 percent of poultry,” an FSA spokesman told BBC.
Meanwhile, the UK government is now drawing up plans to prevent the supply of halal meat to people who are not aware about the method their meat has been slaughtered in, the Daily Mail reported.