Elham Asaad Buaras
The leaders of Belgium’s Muslim and Jewish communities submitted 127,000 signatures on June 2 protesting a proposed ban on non-stunned halal and kosher slaughter of animals.
Members of both communities gathered in front of the Brussels Region Parliament on the last day of two weeks of debate concerning the proposed ban in the capital region to present their protest petition in solidarity.
The proposal, presented by minister of animal welfare Bernard Clerfayt, bore strong similarities with similar measures that passed in Wallonia and Flanders, which were then upheld by the European Court of Justice in December 2020.
Muslim scholars argue that the halal method of slaughter is humane and involves the least suffering for the animal, with a nearly instantaneous death.
The Luxembourg-based court found that the Belgian decree was in line with EU law.
It ruled that requiring stunning before slaughter did limit the ability of believers to exercise their right to manifest their religion. But the judges found it only limited one aspect of the tradition rather than prohibiting the whole practice, and that this limitation met a general EU objective of promoting animal welfare.
Coşkun Beyazgül, Head of the Belgian Religious Foundation and spokesperson for the Belgian Islamic Coordination Board, said.
“We’ve been fighting for a long time because this law that the Brussels Parliament is trying to pass in the name of protecting animal welfare is a serious violation of religious freedoms.”
“If such a decision is made in Brussels, Muslims and Jews will face a great injustice,” said Beyazgul, adding if the law is passed, it will be thanks to extreme rightists and racists.
“It would be very bad to give this message from a place where so many different religions and cultures live in peace, in Belgium, and the capital of Europe, Brussels.”
Albert Gigi, Chief Rabbi of Brussels, added, “This law is unfair and wrong. It targets religious minorities, especially Muslims and Jews.”
Claiming that some are trying to paint Jews and Muslims as anti-animal welfare, Gigi said: “What is unacceptable for us is the prohibition of slaughter according to religious rituals, claiming that by stunning, knocking out, or suffocation by breathing gas, this hurts the animal less.”
EU countries like Sweden, Slovenia, Denmark and Austria already restricted religious slaughter before Belgium.
In the UK some animal rights groups are lobbying to slaughter animals without stunning them. A report by the British think tank, the Centre for Muslim Policy Research (CMPR) said: “The slaughter of animals for food production as per the religious rituals of Muslims and Jews is currently under threat from animal rights organisations who are campaigning to implement a blanket ban on slaughter without stunning.”
