New Challenges for Islamic Ritual Slaughter: A European Perspective
2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 33; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13691830701432871
ISSN1469-9451
Autores Tópico(s)Culinary Culture and Tourism
ResumoAbstract The production and consumption of halal meat products, i.e. deriving from Islamic ritual slaughter, have grown steadily over the last 15 years. Today the global halal market is estimated at US $150 billion per year. In this paper I describe the main steps in the integration of 'Muslim ritual slaughter' into the national legislation of Western European countries, and present an analysis of the economic and political issues involved. Once the subject of dispute between animal welfare organisations and religious groups, the arguments surrounding slaughter ritual have, more recently, particularly in the aftermath of the BSE crisis, evolved to become an issue of consumer rights. To illustrate this evolution, I examine two specific cases: Switzerland, as a European country, and the UK as a member-state of the European Union. Keywords: Islamic Ritual SlaughterReligious FreedomsAnimal RightsConsumer RightsEuropean UnionSwitzerlandUnited Kingdom Acknowledgements A version of this paper was first published in French in 2004 under the title 'Nouveaux enjeux autour de l'abattage rituel musulman: une perspective européenne' in Cahiers d'économie et sociologie rurales, 73: 5–33. I am very grateful to Anne Murcott for her support in the translation of this text. Notes 1. Translated from the French: 'fanatisme religieux avec son cortège de momeries hypocrites et ineptes', quoted in Burgat (1995: 79). 2. The Times, 15 June 2003. 3. Final Report of Mission Greece, 01/03, DG SANCO, European Commission. Online at www.europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/inspections/vi/reports/ greece/vi_rep_gree_9002-2003_en.pdf - 4. Where Muslims accept the stunning process for the slaughter of cows. 5. Source: the website of the British organisation 'Vegetarians International Voice for Animals (VIVA) at www.viva.org.uk 6. Such as Switzerland, the United Kingdom and to a lesser extent Denmark (Delavigne 2000), Germany (Langenfeld 2003), Austria (European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia 2001 European Monitoring Centre on Racim and Xenophobia ( 2001 ) Anti-Islamic Reactions in the EU after the Terrorist Acts Against the USA . Online at http://www.antigone.gr/Nat-Report-291101.pdf [Google Scholar]) and the Netherlands. 7. See http://www.coe.int/T/F/Droits_de_l'Homme/Ecri/1-ECRI/2-Pays-par-pays/Suisse/Suisse_CBC_3.asp 8. Site of Swiss federal authorities http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/pore/vi/vi1t.html 9. Federal legislation of the Swiss Confederation, Section V: Modification of the law on the protection of animals (LPA), No 29, 23 Jully 2002, http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/ff/2002/4651.pdf 10. The BSE crisis caused contamination by bovine spongiform encephalopathy of hundreds of thousands of cattle. 11. 'Farming Today', BBC Radio 4, 10 April 2004. 12. According to Jewish law, the backs of carcasses are not fit for consumption unless the sciatic nerve has been withdrawn. This time-consuming operation is no longer carried out in modern slaughter-houses and the backs of carcasses are systematically withdrawn from kosher circuits (Nizard Benchimol 1998 Nizard-Benchimol, S. 1998. 'L'abattage dans la tradition juive: symbolique et textualisation'. Etudes Rurales, 147–8: 49–64. [Google Scholar]: 51). 13. After slaughter, the slaughterer performs the 'bedika', primarily an examination of the animal's internal organs. 14. BBC Radio 4, 'Farming Today This Week', 3 April 2004. 15. Regulation (EC) No 1830/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2003 concerning the traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms and of food and feed products produced from GOMs. 16. 'The European Commission's Scientific Veterinary Committee (SVC) were sufficiently concerned about the pain involved in religious slaughter to recommend (in an unpublished 1992 Statement) that "stunning before, or within 5 seconds after, the cut should be made a general requirement" for cattle, sheep and chickens undergoing religious slaughter' (Stevenson 2001 Stevenson , P. ( 2001 ) Report by CIWF Trust . Online at www.ciwf.co.uk . [Google Scholar]: 21). 17. I am not referring here to ritual slaughter during Eid el Kabir; for this see Brisebarre (1998 Brisebarre, A-M. 1998. La Fête du Mouton: un sacrifice musulman dans l'espace urbain, Paris: CNRS Méditerranée. [Google Scholar]). 18. Al-Qaradâwî is a Muslim scholar and preacher best known for his popular al Jazeera programme, ash-Shariah wal-Hayat ('Shariah and Life'), and his website IslamOnline, launched in 1997. Al-Qaradâwî is controversial: among Muslims he is widely considered a moderate conservative, while many Western critics regard him as dangerously radical or as a supporter of violence. Some Muslim opponents see him as lax and influenced by Western ideas (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_al-Qaradawi). 19. See the literature on the various systems, a sense of which is provided by a special issue of the journal of the OIE (Organisation Mondiale de la Santé Animale) guest-edited by MacDaniel and Sheridan (2001 MacDaniel , H.A. and Sheridan , M.K. ( 2001 ) 'Traceability of animals and animal products' . Special issue of Scientific and Technical Review , 20(2): onliine at http://www.oie.int/eng/publicat/rt/A_RT20_2.htm [Google Scholar]). 20. IFANCA presents itself as the leading halal-food certification organisation in North America. Based in Chicago, it has offices in Toronto and Brussels: www.ifanca.org. 21. Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as amended by Protocol No. 11, http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/005.htm. Additional informationNotes on contributorsFlorence Bergeaud-BlacklerFlorence Bergeaud-Blackler is Researcher in Sociology at the Université de la Méditerranée
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