Encouraging Dialogue on Issues of Religious Slaughter | Petition
How Important is Halal to You?
“Less than 379 days to save Halal”
Ramadhan/September 2008
Religious slaughter undertaken in the prescribed manner is the most humane method of slaughter, providing humanity for the animal and health benefits for the consumer.
Please sign the petition so your voice can be represented and heard.
The consultation ends in September 2009
379 days to save our Halal!
Purpose and Background
We are gathering support from Muslim Institutions, Masajid, Imams, Scholars and General Public in support of our commonly held belief and definition of what we all consider to be Halal and ultimately to protect Islam.
The term Halal has become a widely misused word and now we are in danger of letting the Law define Halal that is not in agreement with the majority.
As a result, The Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC) is extremely worried of the consequences if nothing is done. To this end, we need your support urgently to stop this infringement on our rights and our religion. We are collecting signatures from you in support of protecting Halal so that contentious Halal practices can be removed and a majority definition can be protected by Law.
Our Concern
The UK Government, FAWC and the European Union are currently consulting on religious slaughter (Halal and Kosher) and debating changes to the Law covering current religious slaughter rights (see www.dialrel.eu).
The consultation has been running since October 2006 and will end in September 2009 with its recommendations.
We fear that the current protection for religious slaughter may be removed or diluted to include unacceptable standards for Halal.
In our opinion, the debate has not engaged the wider Muslim population and the “evidences” collected do not represent the widespread views of Muslims within our communities in the UK.
The definition that is being put forward as Halal is not acceptable to us and in our opinion many within our communities. To this end, we want to gather support to make our voices and your voices heard.
What is Halal?
Methods of slaughter have significantly evolved in the UK and internationally over the past two decades. Many technological advances have been introduced into the slaughter process that we are unaware of both at a public and institution level.
The majority of our Ulama and public would not accept some of the new methods of slaughter if only they knew!
The key contentious issues are:
Mechanical Slaughter – Animals slaughtered by machines and mechanical blades. This is becoming a very common method of slaughter for poultry in the UK and we object to this practice.
Pre-Slaughter Stunning – Animals are stunned with an electric shock prior to slaughter. Scientific studies suggest that many animals die from pre-stunning (especially in poultry and white meat produce) and hence not acceptable for Muslim consumption (animals have to be alive at the point of dhabh/slaughter).
We object to both of these above practices and believe that the Prophetic method is the most humane for the welfare of animals.
We wish to represent your view that these methods are not acceptable and gain your support and voice so that they are adequately represented in consultations that are occurring at UK and International levels. Your support is vital to save Halal and religious exemption Laws we enjoy today.
Our Definition of Halal
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Slaughtered by a qualified Muslim Slaughterman
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The animal is slaughtered manually in a Prophetic and humane manner with religious blessing (Bismillah)
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No to Mechanical Slaughter
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The animal is not to be slaughtered by machine or mechanical blade
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No to Stunning
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The animal is not to be stunned removing the doubts of death prior to slaughter
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Bismillah read personally by Muslim slaughterman on every animal
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Each animal is blessed individually
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We urge the general public and Islamic institutions to please sign the petition in Support of Halal
Please sign and say NO to Mechanical Slaughter (animals slaughtered by machine or mechanical blade).
Please sign and say NO to Stunning (animals pre-stunned with an electric current).
Please sign to ensure that our current religious exemptions in Law remain unaltered.
Please sign to ensure that our voices are heard in the Dialogue on Issues of Religious Slaughter.
