Cruelty of Halal Ritual Slaughter—a Concern as USA Market Expands
Demand for certified halal foods conforming to Muslim standards increases as the Muslim population expands in a nation. The American Muslim population in 2015 was estimated to be around 3.3 million or 1% of our population as cited by Pew Research.
According to a Breitbart News report, more than a quarter of a million Muslim migrants are admitted each year. President Obama plans to add 10,000 more Syrian migrants as well. This past December, Paul Ryan’s House passed the omnibus bringing in nearly 300,000 Muslim migrants in the next 12 months, including around 170,000 who will be permanently resettled within the country.
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The controversy surrounding religious slaughter of animals for halal certification is a concern for many Americans. While some certifying organizations may appear more humane than others, the criteria always involves the animal remaining conscious as it bleeds out, requiring it to die on its own.
Summary of conditions for Halal slaughter:
Islamic law requires that animals intended for human consumption be slain in a certain manner. [Some] conditions for Halal slaughter can be summarized as follows:
- The animal to be slaughtered must be from the categories that are permitted for Muslims to eat.
- The animal must be alive at the time of slaughter.
- No electric shock, bullet or any other means should be used before slaughtering. Using any such method may lead to the death of the animal before it is cut. Islam prohibits Muslims from eating any meat coming from an animal that is dead before slaughter. Muslims are also advised to avoid eating anything doubtful.
- The windpipe (throat), food-tract (oesophagus) and the two jugular veins must be cut.[Please note the animal remains conscious it is dying and must bleed out and die on its own.]
- If at the time of slaughtering the name of anyone else other than Allah is invoked (i.e. animal sacrificed for him/her), then the meat becomes Haram “unlawful.”
- If a Muslim forgets to invoke the name of Allah at the time of slaughtering, the meat will remain Halal. However, if he intentionally does not invoke the name of Allah, the meat becomes Haram.
- The head of the animal must not be cut off during slaughtering but later after the animal is completely dead, even the knife should not go deep into the spinal cord.
- Skinning or cutting any part of the animal is not allowed before the animal is completely dead.
- Slaughtering must be made in the neck from the front (chest) to the back.
- The slaughtering must be done manually not by a machine, as one of the conditions is the intention, which is not found in a machine.
Customary and Desirable Practices When Slaughtering:
- Water should be offered to the animal before slaughter, and it should not be slaughtered when hungry.
- The knife should be hidden from the animal, and slaughtering should be done out of sight of other animals waiting to be slaughtered.
- Animals should be killed in a comfortable way. Unnecessary suffering to them must be avoided.
- The knife should be re-sharpened before slaughter.
Most slaughtering of animals in the UK, meeting the halal certification criteria, require the use of electrical stunning (EU research from 2006 indicated that 75% of cattle, 93% of sheep and 100% of chickens slaughtered in the UK for halal meat were stunned) before their throats are slit, however it has not been proven that the stunning stifles the terror or pain of dying.
Not all halal slaughter complies with the certification criteria listed above. Australia’s live export to Egypt’s investigation revealed terrified animals striving to escape after the slitting of their throats as evidenced by this very graphic and heartbreaking video at: http://www.banliveexport.com/egypt
Our Judeo-Christian culture has core values of mercy and compassion toward animal care as well as the slaughtering methods used in the food industry.
The Bible teaches to take care of animals and that the manner in which we do is a sign of a righteous man.
Proverbs 12:10 (KJ 2000) A righteous man regards the life of his animal: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel
Exodus 23:4 (KJ 2000) If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
Leviticus 22:27-28 (KJ 2000) When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is born, then it shall be seven days with the mother; and from the eighth day and thereafter it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
Deuteronomy 25:4 (KJ 2000) You shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain.
Psalm 36:6 (KJ 2000) Your righteousness is like the great mountains; your judgments are a great deep: O LORD, you preserve man and beast.
The Book of Daniel says he was given revelation not only of King Nebuchadnezzar’s forgotten dream and its interpretation of the division of the Eastern and Western empires in A.D. 364, but also foretells of a last-day political mingling between in a ten-kingdom European United States of dictatorships (iron) and democracies (clay). The amplified Bible notes in Daniel 2:43b “but will not hold together [for two such elements or ideologies can never harmonize], even as iron does not mingle itself with clay.”
Islam’s ideology is not compatible with our Judeo-Christian culture. The two cannot coexist.
Dr. Peter Hammond, the founder of Frontline Fellowship, interviewed by Jamie Glazov explores the Judeo-Christian Biblical teachings on animals.
Part 1
Part 2
