The article in the law Society Gazette "UK: Ritual slaughter and animal welfare" Thursday 28 June 2012 by Zia Akhtar – contains incorrect and misleading facts.
It says that, "The Halal Food Authority (HFA) is working to achieve agreement with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) over the rules governing the ritual slaughter of animals ahead of full implementation of new regulations". Whereas the fact is that HFA’s name is nowhere to be seen on consultation papers regarding “implementation of new regulations” and is confirmed to be the case by the animal welfare team at DEFRA.
The said article should have also revealed that HFA came under fire as KFC is accused of mislabelling halal chicken source:http:www.fwi.co.uk
Leading Islamic scholars have accused fast food chain KFC of mislabelling its chicken as halal.
At a recent conference in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, around 40 scholars agreed KFC was mislabelling its machine-slaughtered chicken as halal and said it should stop selling it immediately. KFC is one of many Non Muslim owned companies certified by HFA
Again this is misleading "In the UK, Muslims have been willing to compromise with the stunning requirement in order to preserve their method of slaughter" as Muslims in the UK like anywhere else in the world are not prepared to compromise on stunning as they believe this too barbaric and inhumane method of slaughter.
There are number of credible as well as preferred certifying authorities in the UK other than HFA who have earned and are trusted by the Muslim community at large as well as the representative organisations including but not exclusive to ANSA (Association of Non Stun Abattoirs), Bradford Council for Mosques and HMC (Halal Monitoring Committee) just mention few.
It is further reported that EBLEX report 2010 stated that given the choice Muslims prefer Non-Stun (i.e. Zibihah) method of Slaughter, the fact is the Muslim are not aware that they are being fed stunned meat and are misled .
It appears that double standards are applied here, electric water bath causes more suffering to poultry according to animal welfare bodies yet it is allowed to continue for economic reasons rather than religious. However when it comes to Zabihah (Mulsim process of producing Halal Meat) or Shechitia (Jews process of making Kosher Meat) it becomes un- acceptable.
This process/method is ordained for the both Jews and Muslims as their dietary requirements.
It is therefore concluded that one must refrain from using a platform such as Law Society Gazette to publish articles which are misleading, poorly researched and ill quoted as public at large relies on trustworthy sources to publish trusted material. Further while Muslim community may seem segregated and easy to be divided by ordinary folks hold eating Halal through the process of Zabihah as a fundamental element of their religious freedom and choice of daily living.
Meat Trade News Daily Supporting British Pig Farmers
Source: newsroom - meattradenewsdaily.co.uk
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