Halal Hysteria it's about Muslims, not animal welfare dr chris allen may 2014 by Chris Allen

5/13/2014

Halal Hysteria: It's About Muslims, NOT Animal Welfare | Dr Chris Allen

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Halal Hysteria: It's About Muslims, NOT Animal Welfare Posted: 12/05/2014 09:25 Like 251 people like this. Be the first of your friends.

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Get UK Newsletters: Enter email Subscribe 1 Email Here's a controversial statement: the recent anti-halal hysteria has nothing to do with the welfare of animals. It's just good old19 Comment fashioned Islamophobia.

This is not to say that some people don't have sincere concerns about the way in which animals are slaughtered: they do. But these are not the people now jumping on the anti-halal bandwagon. Instead, those jumping on the bandwagon are doing so because they seem happy to eat any old dead animal as long as it's not a dead 'Muslim' animal. So where did this hysteria come from? Well for the past few years, groups like the British National Party and English Defence League have been campaigning against halal food. Nothing surprising there. But most recently, the hysteria has emerged in response to a number of overly sensationalised news stories in the British tabloid press. First, the Daily Mail ran a story about how fast food chain Subway had 'banned' pork products in some of its stores in response to 'strong demand' from Muslims. Failing to acknowledge this was a commercial decision - Subway aren't making money selling pork products in heavily populated Muslim areas - the Mail preferred to infer that this was due to Muslim 'force'. In response, The Sun's headline last Wednesday screamed: "Halal Secret of Pizza Express". Besides the 'secret' not being a secret - Pizza Express had been publicising this for almost two years and had tweeted about it too - what the headline could have easily said was, 'More Evidence of Creeping Sharia Found in Pizza Express'. A day after, more fuel was added to the fire when the BBC reported that Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and the Coop were all selling halal New Zealand lamb. Concerned that 'millions' were eating halal meat without knowing it, the Mail reported on the 'stealth' takeover of Britain's supermarkets by Muslims. Accompanying the article were CCTV stills taken inside a halal slaughterhouse alongside the comment, "more than 100 sheep appeared to writhe in agony after being ritually killed". But isn't that what happens in all abattoirs? Animals are killed, they writhe about. To quote Morrissey, meat is murder. And there's the hypocrisy. None of those jumping on the bandwagon are concerned about the morality of 'murdering' animals or their welfare. They are bothered they've been told they're eating Muslim meat. Evidence of this can be found by having a quick look at the hashtag #boycottpizzaexpress. Not many concerned for the animals are there? In fact if they were, then all of those on the anti-halal bandwagon would probably be concerned with more than just the last few seconds of the animal's life. And that's because as Animal Aid state, whether halal slaughtered or not, the type of chicken to end up on a pizza will likely have been industrially hatched before being moved to a giant barn known as a 'broiler shed' in which 40-50,000 chickens live at any given time. Fed with drugs to ensure un-naturally rapid growth, the chickens are likely to suffer from leg deformities that can prevent them from reaching food and water alongside the routine development of heart, lung, liver and kidney problems. Despite being fed antibiotics to keep them alive, around 50 million chickens die each year in such conditions before reaching the abattoir. Chickens bred for eggs are worse. Soon after hatching, chicks are sexed. Whilst the females have their beaks forcibly removed before being moved on to laying, the males are thrown into macerating machines that grind them up - while alive - for use in animal feed. Approximately half of all chicks hatched for this purpose are therefore brutally killed. As Russell Brand put it, "become a vegetarian if you're offended by the concept of chickens dying, don't be a racist". On considering the evidence, if the anti-halal bandwagon isn't Islamophobic then some might be pleased with Subway's decision to stop the sale of pork products given the "harsh and relentless" factory farming methods that pigs are exposed to. Not only are all pigs mainly housed indoors throughout their lives but female pigs are also repeatedly made pregnant using artificial insemination. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-chris-allen/halal-meat-hysteria_b_5306911.html?just_reloaded=1

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5/13/2014

Halal Hysteria: It's About Muslims, NOT Animal Welfare | Dr Chris Allen

Kept in farrowing crates, the pregnant pig is unable to move forwards or backwards let alone turn around. After giving birth, the piglets are taken away at three to four weeks at which time the sow is once more impregnated. Having fattened the piglets with a high protein diet, most of the pigs are sent for slaughter at around seven months. Once at the abattoir, they are given a powerful electric shock to their heads before having their throats 'sticked' with a knife. If done incorrectly, the electric shock can cause agonising pain and leave the animal fully aware. Yet even if applied correctly, if left too long before 'sticking', the pig regains consciousness before being killed. Such is far from uncommon if Animal Aid is to be believed. But of course, there's no outrage about this because it's not Muslims that are slaughtering the pigs. As I said at the outset, this is not about dead animals but about dead Muslim animals. To be brutally honest, it's not even about animals, it's about Muslims pure and simple. And that's why I'm calling it exactly what it is: Islamophobia. Follow Dr Chris Allen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@DrChrisAllen Sponsored Content by Taboola

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David Maddie (againstitall) SUPER USER · 269 Fans

· John is Deranged O, Dear.

Being tricked into eating Halal meat is wrong on every level, and is not Islamophobic, we have to stop 5% of the population, having an influence which far exceeds 5%, it has to be stopped. 12 MAY 10:19 REPLY

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Alex . (alexbbland)

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Islamophobia, what a joke have you read their religious book? Its filled with hate against others and racism; not to mention the ideology is sexist. People need to understand the danger religion poses on a modern world and stop pandering to being nice and accepting about made up belief systems that contain such negative wording. 12 MAY 10:24 REPLY

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Peter . (pppppeter)

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Dr Allen needs to start advising the government of this instead of stating the obvious in pointless articles. 12 MAY 10:43 REPLY

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Steve Hill (SteveHill6)

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Paul Vallelly was trotting out this nonsense yesterday in the Independent - he's a visiting professor of ethics, apparently. Is there some government-sponsored astroturfing going on here? The "hysteria" is not about so-called Islamophobia; it also embraces kosher slaughter. Several western countries have already banned ritual slaughter; others will follow. This is solely about animal welfare, and nothing else. In the June 2003 the government's own Farm Animal Welfare Council recommended ending the religious exemption from humane slaughter regulations passed in 1995. Naturally, the Blair government did nothing. The current campaign is being led the British Veterinary Association and the RSPCA. I would also draw your attention to the campaign to stop Australia's live animal exports to the Middle East. These animals spend six weeks crammed into ships' holds where some suffocate or break limbs. Millions of animals suffer this journey, and thousands of casualties are simply thrown overboard every year. New Zealand has withdrawn from the trade, to its credit. I want to know what I am eating. I want to know what my hospital is serving. I want to know what my children's school is serving. I do not want, unwittingly, to sponsor inhumane slaughter because these organisations have adopted is as the default easy option. The National Secular Society's position is wholly reasonable. Indeed, it is the only reasonable, non-extreme, position to take on this debate. To pretend this is about anything *but* animal welfare is frankly disingenuous. 12 MAY 11:05 REPLY

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Lorelyen V. (brightonsbadgirl) 156 Fans

路 In vino veritas

You have it wrong. The Muslim and Christian faiths are deeply divided versions of the same basic faith. A Christian might find it an insult to have to eat meat blessed by an Imam. 12 MAY 09:47 REPLY

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William C. (wcooke1)

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Just label it and give people a choice. 12 MAY 12:23 REPLY

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Philip Sparrow (Philip_J_Sparrow) SUPER USER 路 1,508 Fans

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I don't agree with the premise of this article. I'm quite confident that if people were regularly and properly exposed to the processes of industrial meat production, they would feel genuine revulsion and shame. This is actually pretty evident from the reaction to this story. Nobody has really cared about the little prayer given over the animal, since most assume this is a meaningless gesture with no material effect. I couldn't care less if someone had been talking to my food. The outrage has been over the physical act of cutting a conscious animal's throat. This has been scientifically proven to cause severe pain and genuine distress.

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Halal Hysteria: It's About Muslims, NOT Animal Welfare | Dr Chris Allen If we were told more about battery farming etc. and shown the horrific PETA and RSPCA videos of what can go on in abattoirs, then the reaction would be the same. The fact that the public is not generally up in arms over cheap meat shows how poorly informed they are, not how indifferent they are. 12 MAY 13:12 REPLY

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Brian G. (Brian_Gilmour)

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I agree in principle with what you are saying Philip, but I'm not sure your argument holds up - 'if we were told more'...how much more do you need to be told? we have all seen the videos from PETA and RSPCA, Jimmys farm a couple of years ago telling us about force growth and 6 month old bacon, Huge Fernlythingamebob telling us about his freerange live stock and how it is better, Jamie Oliver and his attempts to stop the Pink Slime (who would ever touch a chicken nugget again without feeling violently sick after seeing that stuff?)..how much more do you need? The fact is we choose, consciously or not, to ignore these videos/articles, until someone brings a religious aspect to it and then we are all screaming. As for it being about 'being told what is really in your food' (ok this is a point from another poster, but dont stop me, i'm on a roll ;) - Do you hear people up in arms about the recent reports that most Lamb sold in takeaways is not actually lamb? not a word from anyone. The only expection to this I can think of in recent years was the horse meat issue, and even then it was not about animal welfare but about mislabelling. Thanks for listening *steps off the soap box* ;) 12 MAY 15:13 REPLY

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Deborah Rodgers (Deborah_Rodgers)

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I am against animals that have not been ethically killed, being sold/served to the public without giving them a choice. If it's just been blessed, then it doesn't matter, but if it's not been stunned before having it's throat cut, people should know, and be given a choice. 12 MAY 13:39 REPLY

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Steve Hill (SteveHill6)

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For me, the prayer/blessing does matter. It has vague connotations of ritual sacrifice which leave me uneasy. I don't want to encourage such irrationality. 12 MAY 13:58 REPLY

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Peter . (pppppeter)

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The point is that most people in the UK don't care about how animals are killed. Meat is food. The problem is that we're having to cater for a minority who are gradually becoming a majority by doing everything their way. 12 MAY 10:14 REPLY

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5/13/2014

Halal Hysteria: It's About Muslims, NOT Animal Welfare | Dr Chris Allen Humphry T. (humphry) 566 Fans

路 The Voynich Manuscripts.

The meat should be labeled as such..Then the public can choose, that's the best way to judge public opinion. 12 MAY 13:56 REPLY

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Paul (Paul_Causton)

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stop telling me what I think! 12 MAY 11:34 REPLY

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