Halal – correction (I misunderstood it)

A good friend explained to me that my conception of halal, as described in the previous post, was all wrong! I apologise deeply for this, and will try to correct the misstakes here.

Halal is, in fact, an almost ideal method of killing an animal for food; what is shown on the video is how it is carried out in practice: clumsily, carelessly and with no consideration for the suffering of the animal.




This is not the way halal is supposed to be carried out.

My friend tells me that, according to the Quran, halal concerns the treamtent of the cattle in life and in death. It should be raised in peace, with good food and space and handled with respect. When the time comes to kill it, the animal is to be stroked and patted gently, so as to be calmed to sleep. Finally, it must be killed by slitting its throat in a specific way that does not cut any nerves, so the animal faints before it feels any pain, and so dies in peace.

This harmonious and merciful method seems to be the best way to treat an animal you intend to raise only to serve as meat on your plate.

Industrial methods, however, show little consideration for the welfare of the animals, as the demand for vast amounts of meat to be delivered quickly and the greed for money (and thus the desire to resort to cheap, albeit inhumane, methods) outweighs ethical concerns.

The true meaning of halal has been gravely misunderstood by the industry (not only by me), and is practiced as far from the ideal as one would believe possible.

This revelation was good news, though! If this unethical way of handling the animals is not a part of the Muslim religion, there is essentially no good reason not to press to abolish this ghastly treatment! The argument about religious rights I laid out in the previous post falls apart. Instead, we should strive to work harder to follow the actual halal method.


This could be done by (a) raising awareness of the differences between the ideal method and its careless practice, (b) imposing stricter legislations, pressuring industries to work consistently in the harmonious halal way, and/or (c) avoiding farmed products as much as possible, because it is very difficult to monitor and control the industrial methods (without intruding on their privacy to the extent they might become annoyed and accuse the government of spying and/or oppressing them... strict control is unfortunately such a hard thing to implement in democratic societies), that you can rarely be certain that the meat you buy has truly been handled well – staying away from it entirely, limiting yourself to wild food, such as game or wild-caught fish, is much safer, and you can eat with good conscience.