(Paris-NewsHalal, Rabi`I 30, 1437, January 11, 2016) Paris based World Muslim Consumers Organization launched a survey on “Halal meat and stunning” to highlight views of Muslim consumers. Stunning and mechanical killing of animal and poultry is a serious issue which is raising concern among Muslims around the world as many countries and meat companies labelling stunned or mechanically killed animal such as cow, sheep, goat and poultry as a Halal.
Countries like Australia and Brazil are largest exporters of stunned or mechanically killed animal and poultry to Islamic and non Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Indonesia, Holland, S. Korea and Japan etc.
The World Muslim Consumers’ Organization WMCO is an umbrella organisation affiliated with ASIDCOM (France), Behalal.org (UK), Ikeethalal (Netherlands), ASEVE Fondation (Belgium), NewsHalal.com (Japan). WMCO work to protect the Rights of Muslim consumers to meet their religious obligations and requirements within the Halal market.
Several countries, in the pretext of animal welfare, kill animals and poultry through stunning or mechanically. Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Netherlands ban halal slaughtering without pre stunning. However, in USA, France and England, Halal slaughtering in accordance of Islamic way is acceptable. Voices are growing in the Middle Eastern countries and elsewhere to ban imports of meat stunned or mechanically killed animals and poultry, as the way is not in accordance with Islamic Shariah.
Talking about the purpose of survey on “Halal meat and stunning, Ms. Hanen Rezgui Pizette said “Today, Muslim cosumers are called to defend their rights by themselve. Globalization has led halal industrial operators, mostly non-Muslim, to work to impose their own vision of Halal. Their efforts are sustained by several non-Muslim countries governments. In Europe, for example, there are efforts to ban the prophetic religious slaughter. In Europe, Muslim minorities are called to stun their animals and to recognize that religious slaughter isn’t suitable with animal welfare. More and More non-Muslim countries ban religious slaughter, in contradiction with the rights to religious freedom. Muslim countries governments haven’t yet got the harms done to Muslims’ rites within the Halal market. There is no law to advocate Muslim consumers, even in Muslim countries, within the Halal global market. Up today, there is no legal definition or statute of a halal food or good”.
Ms. Hanen insists that the “Muslim consumers must act to defend their rights, interests and Islamic values. The first step is to inform about their needs and requirements. There is a need to stress their opposition to any alteration of their religious rites with respect to the sacrifice of animals. In fact, there are very active groups and activists who act to sustain the agenda of banning religious slaughter. They seek formal opinions to demonstrate religious slaughter as a barbaric. But they also speak on behalf of Muslim consumers, by creating data that should show agreement of Muslim consumers with the use of stunning within Dhakat/religious Muslim consumers”.
She mentioned that “For example, last Eid Al Adha (2015), a Belgium animal welfare (Gaia) used a survey that says 50% of Muslim consumers, in Belgium, accept stunning of sheep. So the court decided to maintain ban of religious slaughter without stunning in temporary abattoirs. This situation led to the Boycott of Belgium sheep by Muslims during the Eid. The success of the Boycott showed that Gaia data are wrong”.
The survey on “Halal meat and stunnig” asks a Muslime consumer questions such as do you choose to consume Halal meat? or Are you aware that there are different methods of stunning used for halal slaughter?
You can express own views by participating in this survey by clicking following link: https://worldmuslimconsumers.org/wmco-survey-halal-meat-and
