Halal Meat

Should I feel bad that I'm unhappy with my kids school changing suppliers of school meals which now means that all meat will be halal?

There are hardly any Muslims at the school, you could count the number on one hand. The reason given is cost and location, the new supplier is ten minutes away as opposed to twenty minutes away.

Would I walk out of a restaurant which only served halal meat? Probably not. So why am I uncomfortable about this change?

I don't like the idea of how the animal is killed. Too long and drawn out. I also don't like the idea of my child's food receiving a Muslim blessing. While not particularly religious I do class myself as a Christian.

It is a genuine question. Am I a hypocrite?

 

not at all. I won't eat meat I know was halal, cos of the slaughtering methods. Most restaurants don't say, and I assume that it wasn't, unless it explicitly said that is Halal

 

Halal meat is killed in almost exactly the same, humane way that other animals are slaughtered.

"Halal" merely means something that has been legally or lawfully produced for Muslims, not necessarily the method. In terms of meat, this can apply to what kind of animal is used (not pigs, for instance) and the way they are killed. The animal must be healthy and the butcher must make recital to Allah before the jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe are cut with a single swipe - the idea being that the animal dies immediately and the blood drains away. A similar process occurs in mainstream food production. In itself this does sound unnecessarily cruel, but most Halal animals in mainstream food production are stunned prior to this part of the procedure (some of the animals that you eat, as a 'normal' Westerner, are killed by gassing, electrocution or firing a bolt through the head - hardly better than the Halal method, surely?) An RSPCA fact sheet stated that 90% of Halal animals in 2004 were stunned fiirst.

So, in all honesty, the only difference between the chicken on your kids plate and his Islamic friend is the packaging it arrived in. Chances are the animal was killed in the same abbatoir at the same time.

 

I would of thought there would be a choice for the kids and for the parents, obviously not but that is what they did at my school i'm sure, one canteen had Halal the other non Halal, we had a very mixed school though when it came to race and religion.

It must be killing two birds with one stone, saving money and the ethics side of it.

 

And the muslim blessing?

 

Yeah well !!!

 

The school is a tiny village school. The meals are prepared at another school and brought in. The previous school who supplied the meals was apparently a C of E school and the meat was prepared in a "traditional" way (not sure how else to word it, sorry). The new school is in an area which is predominantly muslim, hence the halal meat.

My children do have a choice - they either eat school meals with halal meat or they take packed lunches. Those are the choices.

 

MMM, well i was the 'child' so i don't know, and the fact i was always in big multicultural school's probably made everything..'normal'.

Must add though we had the choice of two canteens, or a packed lunch, but most of the time we climbed over the roof and went to the chippy which your kids will do soon enough ;-)

 

Ah, so THAT's how they do it! Bit cruel though?

 

HAHA I was waiting for it!!

 

The blessing is: "By the name of God, The Most Compasionate, The Most Merciful." Which is disappointing, many would prefer it to be "Western fuckpigs, I will kill you all." In mass production it is not said for every animal. It's trivial to us, a bit like a white bloke singing as he sets his captive bolt pistol through the schwad of a cow.

Meat is meat. Eating it won't turn you into a dirty muslim.

 

When I was about 13 my Mother's help showed me how to kill a chicken by putting a broom handle over its neck and yanking on the legs. Seemed to work.

 

Did you use the same blessing I used to when smashing snared bunnies across the bonce? "Av that ye fucka!"

 

So ham sandwiches it is then.

 

I remember the chefs at Sultan stopping us from eating the halal scran that had been prepared for the overseas navies,I asked why and the chef (PO Cook) said it had been prepared in different pots, I said really? No he said but the overseas navies lads thought it had been!

 

On a visit to the Catering school in Raleigh several years ago, I asked the WO i/c what the routine was for feeding personnel of the Muslim faith. His reply was that all meat supplied through service channels is now halal. Whether he was pulling my plonker or not I have no idea, but it was a serious conversation.
2BM

 

I wouldn't object to it. It's part of us being a civilised, and tolerant society.I can see where your unease stems from though. If you were in Saudi, and you demanded your kids got their daily pork pie, you'd soon get short shift.

 

The only gash scran I had in the mob, the grub served up to the Libyans/Iraqis/Iranians was far better than the shite they expected us to eat, 1970, I went on draft just before they commisioned the new galley/dining hall but it was no better apparently.

 

The school I went to only served meat once or twice a week either corned dog or snorkers - good fatbastard northern grub, now the North West has more than its fair share of our muslim brothers I bet the menu has somewhat. Me I'll eat owt. except fcuking Yakult of course.

 

Halal and Kosher only get away with it because the throat cutting without first stunning the beast happens under the guise of religion, if not for that it would be illegal in this country.