Dogwash

According the Mail, Gawd bless it,

Now they'll have to tell us if we're eating halal:
Ministers prepare to change law

It's all a bit woolly and sounds like a sound-bite to pacify the masses, as well as providing an opportunity for the Mail to make a claim for the credit. The references to this emerging government view that I have been able to find all lead back to the Mail piece, so maybe it's little more than journalistic kite-flying.

But if it does happen then halleluiah! The EU has recently backed down on proposals to require labelling of "non-stunned meat", the opposition from Jewish and Muslim lobbyists seemingly being driven primarily by economic considerations: the kosher and halal markets are cross-subsidized by the unacknowledged sale of unstunned meat into the wider secular market, both excess ritually qualified meat as well as meat which for whatever arcane reason has failed the ritualistic rigmarole.

I don't know what's driving the apparent flurry of government activity reported by the Mail. Presumably "They" have noticed that the natives are getting restless, be it from stories in the Mail, the street activism of the EDL, the allegations of Marine LePen, or whatever. The natives are getting restless, and can no longer be quelled by tut-tutting by the and the veiled threat of accusations of racism. Something must be done, or at the very least said.



Well, we shall see what we shall see. But there is one aspect of this issue which is worth commenting on here and now. When opposing the clandestine spread of halal (and, in principle at least, kosher) products, it has become conventional to speak purely in animal welfare terms, to focus exclusively on the cruelty of slitting the throat of a fully conscious beast, something which is done in dhabihah slaughter so that, it would appear, the dying animal will hear the prayer of thanks to Allah which sanctifies its death and presumably be duly grateful.

Opponents of halal take the cruelty line in order to sidestep accusations of racism.

The trouble with this approach, which is essentially a variant of the "I'm not racist but..." pre-emptive cringe, is that like other such cringes it leaves you wide open to easy distractive counter-attack from the Righteous.

The vegetarian Righteous will simply sidetrack the discussion into a general argument about how dreadfully cruel all slaughter of meat animals is. The carnivorous Righteous will argue that animal welfare standards at British farms and slaughterhouses are open to criticism generally on a variety of grounds, so what's with the preoccupation with Muslim and Jewish cultural requirements, hmm? Not being racist are we, hmm?

All perfectly reasonable no doubt, but apt to bog you down in irrelevances while the halal slaughterhouses gradually become the norm as a matter of supplier convenience and effective control of the meat industry passes more or less incidentally into Muslim hands.

There's nothing wrong with arguing against the cruelty of unstunned slaughter. There's nothing wrong in arguing more generally for a decent life and a death with minimal fear for the animals that we rear to eat.

But that is not the primary issue here, is it?

The primary issue is a cultural one. I am an Englishman and an atheist of Christian social heritage. This is my people's homeland, my people's culture has primacy here, and I expect to be able to buy, by default, meat and other food prepared according to my people's cultural standards.

Irrespective of animal-welfare considerations, I prefer not to eat meat slaughtered by some bearded nutter muttering "Bismillah! Allahu Akbar" or whatever the required formulation is as he slits the bewildered and terrified beast's throat, in order to sanctify the slaughter.

This bizarre practice is, for the time being at least, tolerated in this country. By our leave. That may not always be the case. But while it is I do not expect it to be foisted on me unbeknown, whether for the convenience of lazy suppliers or in order to appease and accommodate colonists.

Remember you don't have to apologize for being British.



Rant ends. Innit.