For years, Jewish groups have cast a wary eye on the growing opposition to kosher slaughter, or shechitah, in Western countries. In New Zealand, the Netherlands and Australia, among others, there have been various efforts made to ban shechitah on the grounds that it constitutes inhumane treatment of animals.
Now, with elections on the horizon in France, a new battle is being waged on ritual slaughter — in particular, on French butchers who perform halal slaughter for their Muslim customers. Apparently, it’s too expensive for a slaughterhouse to perform both the Muslim ritual slaughter and conventional slaughter, which involves stunning the animal unconscious before killing it. That means that some French consumers may be eating halal meat without knowing it.
With the growing backlash against Muslims in France fuleing the right-wing candidacy of Marine Le-Pen (who I write about here), it’s not such a surprise that this has become a campaign issue.
Le Pen says France is being crushed by an invading immigrant force.
"I have the right as a citizen to know if I’m buying meat where the animal is slaughtered in horrible cruelty, taking sometimes 15 minutes to die," said Le Pen. "This is a moral point. Don’t French people who don’t want to eat halal have the same rights as Muslims who do?"
At the Oasis halal meat shop in this largely immigrant neighborhood in the north of Paris, four butchers stand behind the counter waiting on a line of customers. The butchers say every time there’s an election, Muslims are stigmatized, whether it’s halal meat or headscarves. Customer Karim Benhadada, who is French-Algerian, says he’s long stopped paying attention to Le Pen and the National Front Party.
"The latest debate has nothing to do with halal meat," he says. "It’s that their hearts are full of hatred toward us."
UPDATE: It’s happening in French-speaking Canada, too.
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