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ISLAM

Halal storm triggers meat sale backtrack

A test sale of Halal meat in the Spar supermarket chain caused a storm of Islamophobia, leading to cancelation of the pilot after only two weeks.

Halal storm triggers meat sale backtrack
Typical Austrian meat platter. Probably not Halal. Photo: Paul Gillingwater

With the recent significant increase in Muslim refugees arriving in the central European country, the Austrian operation of the Dutch Spar supermarket chain decided to offer meat prepared according to Islamic guidelines, following the Halal certification.

Unfortunately, Spar's customers in Vienna showed they were not ready for such a cultural change, and resorted to verbally harassing Spar staff in stores, as well as posting anti-Muslim comments in online forums.

According to Spar spokeswoman Nicole Berkman, protection of its employees' safety was of great importance, citing security concerns for ending the trial.

Additionally, animal rights activists argued that the Halal method of ritual animal slaughter — which shares many aspects of Kosher meat production — was unnecessarily cruel, with animals suffering more when butchers follow the Islamic tradition.

“We will not put up with Muslim rubbish in our country. This is our culture and it must not become subordinated to a barbaric ideological minority,” one user wrote on Spar‘s Facebook page.

“As a local retailer for all population groups in Austria, we are saddened and shocked about the tone of the discussions, but we are drawing the consequences,” Spar said in an online message.

The term Halal translates as “lawful” or “permitted” in Arabic. It is usually only applied to meat that is slaughtered in methods that comply with Islamic law. 

The animal must be healthy before it is killed and all blood must be drained from the body – to this end the jugular vein of the animal is cut with a sharp knife. A prayer must be said as the animal is killed.

Within Islam there is some debate about how strictly these rules have to be adhered to. One of these is whether the animal is stunned prior to slaughter. Animal welfare groups such as the RSPCA believe that not doing so causes unnecessary suffering.

Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland all ban slaughter without stunning but the UK has refused pressure to follow suit.  Austrian meat is generally stunned before being slaughtered.

New Zealand is one of the largest exporters of Halal meat, with an estimated 70 percent of lamb from that country receiving Halal certification.

ISLAM

Mosques in Cologne to start broadcasting the call to prayer every Friday

The mayor of Cologne has announced a two-year pilot project that will allow mosques to broadcast the call to prayer on the Muslim day of rest each week.

Mosques in Cologne to start broadcasting the call to prayer every Friday
The DITIP mosque in Cologne. Photo: dpa | Henning Kaiser

Mosques in the city of the banks of the Rhine will be allowed to call worshippers to prayer on Fridays for five minutes between midday and 3pm.

“Many residents of Cologne are Muslims. In my view it is a mark of respect to allow the muezzin’s call,” city mayor Henriette Reker wrote on Twitter.

In Muslim-majority countries, a muezzin calls worshippers to prayer five times a day to remind people that one of the daily prayers is about to take place.

Traditionally the muezzins would call out from the minaret of the mosque but these days the call is generally broadcast over loudspeakers.

Cologne’s pilot project would permit such broadcasts to coincide with the main weekly prayer, which takes place on a Friday afternoon.

Reker pointed out that Christian calls to prayer were already a central feature of a city famous for its medieval cathedral.

“Whoever arrives at Cologne central station is welcomed by the cathedral and the sound of its church bells,” she said.

Reker said that the call of a muezzin filling the skies alongside church bells “shows that diversity is both appreciated and enacted in Cologne”.

Mosques that are interested in taking part will have to conform to guidelines on sound volume that are set depending on where the building is situated. Local residents will also be informed beforehand.

The pilot project has come in for criticism from some quarters.

Bild journalist Daniel Kremer said that several of the mosques in Cologne were financed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, “a man who opposes the liberal values of our democracy”, he said.

Kremer added that “it’s wrong to equate church bells with the call to prayer. The bells are a signal without words that also helps tell the time. But the muezzin calls out ‘Allah is great!’ and ‘I testify that there is no God but Allah.’ That is a big difference.”

Cologne is not the first city in North Rhine-Westphalia to allow mosques to broadcast the call to prayer.

In a region with a large Turkish immigrant community, mosques in Gelsenkirchen and Düren have been broadcasting the religious call since as long ago as the 1990s.

SEE ALSO: Imams ‘made in Germany’: country’s first Islamic training college opens its doors

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