Quran
Misconceptions Mrs Zainab Mubashar & Dr Yahya Mubashar
Misconceptions • Jihad • Halal slaughter
Misconceptions about Jihad or Struggle • “Fight in the cause of God with those who fight you... • ... but do not transgress limits: for God does not love transgressors” (Qur'an 2:190) • “God does not forbid you from being good to those who have not fought you over religion or driven you from your homes, or from being just towards them. God loves those who are just”. (Qur'an 60:8)
Halal Slaughter in Quran • Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which has been invoked the name of other than God. that which has been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by being gored to death; that which has been (partly) eaten by a wild animal; unless you are able to slaughter it (in due form)... Chapter 5 AlMaeda, Verse 3
Halal Slaughter – Blood free Meat • This verse indicates that Divine prefers humans not to consume blood since it contains waste products and germs which are a contaminant in case of dead meat and animals killed by strangling or any other way . • Hence a way of slaughtering was prescribed in all Abrahamic religions which makes use of the natural body reflexes to completely pump out blood from the body until the last drop. • These reflexes triggered by spinal cord keeps the heart pumping even when the brain is dead until there is no more blood to pump out • In this process the meat becomes blood free
British Slaughter Houses • Blood free meat is considered hygienic in Britain too • Halal slaughtering – 1 stage (Slaughtering) • British process – 2 stage – Stunning; the Animal is 'stunned' – rendering it unconscious – Slaughtering; the animal by having its throat cut or killing by a chest stick (cutting close to the heart where main arteries are cut) and allowed to bleed causing death by Exsanguinations
Stunning methods used in Britain • Captive bolt equipment and electrical stunning are approved methods of stunning sheep, goats, cattle and calves • Chemical gas (Carbon dioxide) is used for swine to asphyxiate the animal before being bled. • Electrical stunning is also used for chicken, duck and other birds
Critics of Halal Slaughter • Govt funded UK Farm Animal Welfare Council says that the method by which Kosher and Halal meat is produced causes severe suffering to animals and it should be banned immediately • RSPCA concern is – Visual sighting of an animal moving it limbs while being slaughtered is unpleasant and indicates dying in pain. – Hence they recommend the animal to be stunned rendering unconscious, after which the animal is presumed to be not in pain while slaughtering.
Supporters of Halal Slaughter • Stunning inflicts more pain than slaughtering without it • Stunning takes more time for brain to become unconscious than ritual slaughtering • Captive bolt in animals with thick skull sometimes needs repeated bolting which inflicts more severe pain. • Electric stunning process sometimes causes death of small and weak animals like chicken before they are slaughtered.
Which procedure inflicts less pain? • In 1978, a study by Prof. Schulze at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Germany • Incorporating 17 sheep and 15 calves, • Concluded that the slaughter in the form of a ritual cut, if carried out properly, is painless according to his EEG electrodes recordings in their brains • Immediate loss of blood to brain, shuts off brain function including pain reception • Brain death and unresponsiveness of the animal reflexes occur earlier in halal slaughtering as compared with stunning the animal
Legal recognition • This study is cited by the German Constitutional Court in its permitting of Halal slaughtering • In United states The Humane Slaughter Act defines ritual slaughter as one of two humane methods of slaughter
French Report • In March 2008, the French Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fishing has published ASIDCOM’s Bibliographical Report on Religious Slaughter and the Welfare of Animals • This report quotes scientific papers and French veterinary PhD which support the equality or even possible superiority of religious slaughter to other methods of slaughter.
French Report • This report quotes in particular the Ph.D work of Dr Pouillaude which concludes by saying: Conclusions of all the scientific experiments converge towards a firmly supported certainty: properly carried out, religious slaughter is the most humane way because it leads to less trauma to animals to be killed to be consumed for its meat"
Message Say: O people of the Book! Come to common terms as between us and you: Al Quran (Al'Imran: verse 64)