The Cut-Throat Battle for Halal Meat

“Man Ist Was Man Isst” this German saying means “You are what you eat!”

Since the beginning of time, people in different cultures have tried to make laws about what to eat, what not to eat and how to eat what. 

The concepts of Kosher and Halal are codes to followers of Judaism and Islam about what food products are good and which are bad for them. The market for Halal food for Muslims in the West is a multibillion dollar industry with cut-throat competition.

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Meat for Muslims in the West is a Huge Market

One out of every six persons alive today is a Muslim. Of the 1,5 billion followers of Islam worldwide, a significant proportion live in the West. According to the 2001 census 2.7 % of the UK population of 61 million are Muslims. Estimates of Muslims in the USA vary from 1.1 million (American Religious Identification Survey) to 6-7 million (Council on American-Islamic Relations).

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American Muslims are one of the most racially diverse religious groups in the United States according to a 2009 Gallup poll. As other Muslims in the West, they may disagree about many things, but one thing they agree upon is that their meat is properly slaughtered or Halal and not Haram or improper.

What is Halal?

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The animal is to be slaughtered (only by a Muslim) should be healthy and alive at the time. 

Here is a video of a properly done Halal slaughter. Warning: Gruesome and shocking to watch!



Since carrion or eating dead animals is forbidden, the jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe are severed with a razor sharp knife by a single swipe, to cause minimal pain. Further, all the blood should naturally drain away and the meat kept away from Haram meat like pork.

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One county in Ohio, USA has a 2005 law against selling or producing food mislabeled “Halal”, which does not meet Islamic dietary standards. Halal Monitoring Committee in the UK tries to provide comprehensive certification.

The Australian government regulates all Halal slaughter, but in France there are as many certification bodies as France has varieties of cheese. Halal Industry Development Corporation, based in Malaysia has tried to create a global Halal certification standard but not succeeded.

The Lucrative market for Muslim food dollars in the West

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The market for Muslim food in the West is about $650 billion globally. Big European chains have been quick on the pursuit of this catch. The French Carrefour, the second largest retailer in the world, the British chain Sainsbury sells Halal meat and they even sell Halal chocolate at Tesco.

Zabihah, lists an online guide to shops and restaurants, which sell Halal products globally. Even Fast-food chains like KFC have Halal only restaurants in the UK and France.

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No country has any kind of ban on foodstuffs favoured by Muslims though there may be bans on apparel. France forbade Muslims students to wear headscarves in schools in 2004. There is no similar ban in the UK. 69% of non-Muslim respondents in the USA, would allow Muslim students to wear headscarves and 64% would allow Muslims to date their sons or daughters, according to a July 2007 Newsweek survey.

Muslims may be disproportionately poor in the West, but they spend proportionately larger sums on food than other population groups. Maybe for this reason as well as for the rich cuisine, Muslim food has also become popular in the West. Antoine Bonnel, of Paris Halal Expo, claims that non-Muslims spend 12-14% of their income on food but Muslims spend double that amount on food and meat makes 30% of their food budget.

Why Oppose Halal?

Are there any reasons for opposing the practice of halal and kosher?

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• Animal rights groups, even if they might eat meat themselves, object to the Halal method of slaughter as the animal should be alive when the throat is slit and the animal does feel pain.
• Immediately after coming to power, the Nazis outlawed Jewish ritual slaughter (very similar to Halal). Mussolini followed suit. As the Allies liberated Europe, these bans were revoked except in Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
• Some countries like New Zealand insist on specific methods of stunning before ritual slaughter as a compromise.

Some people strongly express their opinion that vegetarianism and Islam don't go very well hand in hand. But, this is not a comprehensive opinion shared by all Muslims. There are many Muslims who live perfectly sane, happy and healthy lives while choosing not to eat meat. 

I asked a Muslim friend of mine about his family's vegetarianism, and he replied "The one overall guideline on food that the Prophet gave was: Eat of what is halâl and what is agreeable to you. That says it all."

Which Calendar to Follow in 2009 and 2010?

The clock ticks, the hands of the timepiece move on. The pages on the wall calendar are turned. 2008 makes way for 2009.

Have you ever thought which calendar system do you follow?

There are many calendar systems in the world. Some are in more widespread use than others.

The Year 2009 in Different Calendar Systems is:

• 6244 in the Ancient Egyptian calendar
  
• 5769 in the Hebrew calendar
  
• 5122 in the Maya calendar
  
• 5106 in one of the Hindu calendars (there are 30 different systems)
  
• 4706 in the Chinese calendar – the year of the Ox in Chinese astrology
  
• 1430 in the Islamic or Hijri calendar
  
• 163 in the Bahá'í calendar

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Yes, there are many calendar systems used in the modern world. But if we try to group them in a logical manner, we find that basically there are two types of contemporary calendar systems in use: the Lunar calendar, like the Islamic calendar and the Solar calendar like the Gregorian calendar used all over the Western world. 

Lunar calendars are the most ancient ones. These were used by the Cro-Magnon human ancestors about 35 000 years ago.

The Origin of the Word 'Calendar'

We don't know the Cro-Magnon name for the calendar but we know the etymology of the word 'Calendar'. The word ‘calendar’ comes from the Roman custom of referring to the first day of each new month as Kalends or Kalends from their word calare (to announce solemnly, to call out).

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Ancient Calendar Systems

In the ancient world, there was also the Lunisolar calendar system, used by the Hebrew, the Hindu, Babylonian, Tibetan, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, pre-Julian Roman calendars as well as pre-Julian Germanic calendars.

About 5000 years ago, the ancient Egyptian civil calendar had a year with 365 days, divided into 12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 extra days at the end of the year. The months were divided into 3 "weeks" of ten days each. Rather than the sun or the moon, Sothis or Sirius (a star) was the fixed point.

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It is based on the heliacal rising of Sothis, or when Sothis is first visible over the eastern horizon at dawn. Like many other ancient people, the Egyptians knew that the earth takes 365.25636 days to complete one revolution around the sun. Copernicus used the extremely accurate Egyptian data to construct his tables for the motion of the planets. According to the famed Egyptologist J. H. Breasted, the earliest date known in the Egyptian calendar corresponds to 4236 B.C.E. in terms of the Gregorian calendar and the year 2009 would then be 6244.

Maya Calendar System Does Not Predict the End of the World in 2012

The Mayas in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica had a fascinatingly accurate and complex calendar system of Venus-cycles, 365-day Haab or solar calendar and the Tzolk'in or 260 day calendar. The popular version that the world will end catastrophically on October 12^th 2012 according to the Maya calendar is nonsense. They even have distance dates like October 21^st 4772 A.D. on their calendar.

The Dogon people living in Bandiagara and Douentza in Mali, West Africa use a calendar based on a fifty year cycle, which is the time the star Sirius B takes to circle the primary star Sirius A every 49.9 - or 50 years.

People with No Calendars

American Indian tribes did not have a true calendar or a single integrated system of marking days and longer periods of time.

The remnant of the monotheistic Himba people in Ekambu, Namibia, who survived the great massacre of 1904-07, live in relative isolation by a different calendar. For them each year begins when the thunderstorms start and leaves grow from the ground.

2009 is the International Astronomy year as it is the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei first using a telescope and Johannes Kepler publishing his Astronomia Nova in the 17^th century.

What would the ancient Maya, Egyptian, Hindu and Chinese astronomers have said to this?

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Do Average Americans Stand up to Injustice?

Do average Americans stand up to defend another human being insulted unjustly by a bully, who claims to be a patriot?

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Testing Civic Courage in America


Is it possible to test the civic courage of average Americans in a daily setting?

ABC News network tried to discover this by hiring actors as a bullying baker in a bakery in Waco, Texas and another actor as a Muslim lady customer trying to buy an apple strudel.

This film shows how the baker repeatedly insulted the lady Muslim customer and refused to serve her by claiming that she was a terrorist. Some people in the shop chose not to intervene and actually supported the bullying shopkeeper though she pleaded help.

Then, other customers intervened that she was being treated unfairly and walked out. It is very encouraging that so many ordinary people stood up to defend decency and fairness after the initial run of compliance and shock.

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Through the celluloid media and now the Internet, we have been used to the fact that Americans have exposed their way of life for the world to stare at. One of the most common reactions many people have on their first visit to the USA, is that it's familiar, like in the movies. 

If we refrain from extrapolating issues like Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib or Neocon politics on to the general American psyche, this video shows that some ordinary people conform to bullies but ordinary people also heroically stand up to defend the underdog. This is the very principle of America, which has stood as a beacon that inspires people. 

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The idea of America shines brighter than the neon lights and slogans!

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Civic Courage in Other Countries

Would this behaviour be fairly representative of the situation in other countries?

What would be the result if we conducted the same experiment with an easily recognizable American, German or Swedish woman (or a man) in place of the Muslim lady in a bakery in a predominantly Islamic country? Would local people take her/his side if the local baker would insult her/him and refuse service by unjustly calling her/him an aggressor?

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It is fashionable to portray the inability to rise up and protest when you see some wrongdoing as a sign of moral weakness. Can we stamp entire societies at certain time periods for such behaviour?

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's 1996 Hitler's Willing Executioners argued that the blame for the Holocaust should be placed on all Germans, especially the ones who did not rise up and resist. Goldhagen gained international celebrity, but the simplistic argument of the book was widely criticized by serious scholars and historians.  

Let us hope, as this experiment in America shows, that there are brave lions among the meek, everywhere.