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The Meat You Eat is HALAL but The USDA Won’t Label It
Pamela Geller ^ | Pamela Geller

Posted on 08/14/2016 4:08:18 AM PDT by HomerBohn

This is an outrage. If the roles were were reversed and it was Muslims being ignored, Muslims whose dietary religious traditions being violated, all hell would break loose.

Pamela Geller: USDA Ignores AFDI Petition to Require All Halal Meat Be Labeled as Such

A great deal of meat sold in this country is halal but is not labeled is such. It’s a scandal — but an established practice: meat packers generally do not separate halal meat from non-halal meat, and do not label halal meat as such. We attempted to right that wrong. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture has for four years now ignored, shelved, or just plain refused to rule on our petition.

As many Americans do not, for a variety of reasons, wish to eat halal meat, back in February 2012, my organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), filed a citizen petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, asking that a regulation be enacted to ensure that all halal food be clearly labeled as halal. In April 2012, we agreed not to publicize our petition in order to give the agency some space to review the document without any pressure from the public.

On May 11, 2012, we had a face-to-face meeting in the USDA offices with top FSIS officials. We discussed this petition and the need for halal meat to be clearly labeled. Present at this meeting was Dan Engeljohn, a longtime USDA official who is now Assistant Administrator for the Office of Policy and Program Development (OPPD) in the FSIS. This position makes him responsible for FSIS regulations.

Engeljohn and company have now had four years to rule on our petition. They’ve done absolutely nothing.

As far back as October 2010, I reported on little-noted but explosive revelations that much of the meat in Europe and the United States was being processed as halal without the knowledge of the non-Muslim consumers who bought it.

Then in November 2011, I penned an article that caused a firestorm across the political spectrum, revealing that Butterball turkeys were all halal, but were not labeled as such. Heads exploded on the left – not over Butterball’s deception, but over my having the audacity to reveal it. And the clueless and compromised on the right were enraged as well: John Podhoretz tweeted, “I’d tell Pamela Geller to put a sock in it, but the sock might be halal.”

I was, of course, excoriated as a racist Islamophobic anti-Muslim bigot. In reality, however, we have no objection to halal meat being sold, as long as it is clearly labeled as such, and as long as non-halal meat is available. Meat that is halal must be labeled as such.

Our petition regarding ritual slaughter was posted on the FSIS website on February 14, 2012. It was a “ritual slaughter” petition that applied to all types of ritual slaughter: kosher, halal, etc. Every type of ritual slaughter holds some type of concern for some segment of the consuming public. We were not asking the USDA to single out a specific type of slaughter when dealing with this issue; our petition did not single out one type of ritual slaughter over another, nor did it wish to discriminate against a specific religious group.

We just wanted all meat that had been ritually slaughtered to be clearly labeled to that effect. Kosher meat is routinely marked accordingly; why not halal meat?

Our petition has since been taken down from the FSIS site, but here is a screenshot via the wayback machine.

This is strictly a false labeling and consumer choice issue. Religious people – Jews, Muslims, and others — should have the freedom to have meat and poultry products produced in a way that meets their needs. Conversely, consumers who don’t wish to consume ritually slaughtered products have a right to sufficient labeling information.

Under the current system, ritually slaughtered meat and poultry is not sufficiently labeled for consumers to be able to choose exactly what they want. Labeling can be misleading and untruthful in what it does not say if key facts are omitted. Consumers should have the ability to be able to choose for themselves if they want to eat ritually slaughtered products. Some Christians see the New Testament prohibiting the consumption of meat sacrificed to idols, and some would view halal meat as meeting that definition. But under current law, they have no way to avoid eating it.

Just as those who buy meat and poultry products labeled halal or kosher should have a reasonable expectation that the meat they’re buying was actually produced in that manner, so also those of us who don’t want to eat halal meat for whatever reason should also have a reasonable assurance that meat not labeled halal was not actually slaughtered in accordance with Sharia rules. As halal slaughter increases in the US, the likelihood of unknowingly buying meat sacrificed under the present system also increases.

This is a matter of simple justice and common sense. So why is the USDA stonewalling on our petition?


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bhousda; cryptoislam; getislamoutofus; halal; halalmeat; islaminside; obama4islam; sharia4all; usda; ushalal; usjihad
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Not many Americans want to eat meat that's been sacrificed in the name of a pedophile, evil, sacrilegious 'prophet' and the proceeds used to finance our butchery!
1 posted on 08/14/2016 4:08:19 AM PDT by HomerBohn
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To: HomerBohn

The meat I eat is Halal? I had pork chops for supper yesterday.


2 posted on 08/14/2016 4:10:12 AM PDT by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: HomerBohn

Until lately, when you read about not eating meat sacrificed to idols, you would say, “Glad we don’t have to worry about that anymore!”. WRONG, There baaack!


3 posted on 08/14/2016 4:23:25 AM PDT by SubMareener (Save us from Quarterly Freepathons! Become a MONTHLY DONOR!e)
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To: HomerBohn

1 Corinthians 8King James Version (KJV)

8 Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

2 And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

3 But if any man love God, the same is known of him.

4 As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)

6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

7 Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

8 But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.

9 But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

10 For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

11 And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?

12 But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

13 Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.


4 posted on 08/14/2016 4:25:55 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof, but they're true ... and it pisses people off)
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To: HomerBohn

We ask The Lord to bless our food to our bodies and strengthen us for His service in the name of His Son, Jesus.
Halal or road kill makes no difference to me.


5 posted on 08/14/2016 4:28:39 AM PDT by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything)
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To: knarf

No one reads alternate media, so no one knows a thing about this report, thus ... it doesn’t matter if it’s muzzie blessed or not.


6 posted on 08/14/2016 4:28:43 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof, but they're true ... and it pisses people off)
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To: knarf

1 Corinthians 8:8-13New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

8 “Food will not bring us close to God.”[a] We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? 11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.[b] 12 But when you thus sin against members of your family,[c] and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling,[d] I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them[e] to fall.


7 posted on 08/14/2016 4:31:18 AM PDT by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith, one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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To: HomerBohn

Check the lamb you buy at Costco, it’s halal.
I pointed this out to a woman and she called me a liar. Stupid b!tch.


8 posted on 08/14/2016 4:34:48 AM PDT by Original Lurker
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To: outofsalt

I don’t believe our Lord wants you to eat road kill. I know for certain He doesn’t want you to eat meat blessed by an imam to the glory of Mohammed and Allah.


9 posted on 08/14/2016 4:37:19 AM PDT by HomerBohn (Liberals and Slinkys: Good for nothing but make you smile as you shove them down the stairs.)
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To: Vaquero

The imams through their magical incantations convert pork chops to lamb.


10 posted on 08/14/2016 4:38:44 AM PDT by HomerBohn (Liberals and Slinkys: Good for nothing but make you smile as you shove them down the stairs.)
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To: HomerBohn

And Catholics ..... never mind.


11 posted on 08/14/2016 4:44:34 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof, but they're true ... and it pisses people off)
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To: HomerBohn

It’s not simply the Muslim prayers, it is the particularly cruel method of slaughter. But what else would you expect from Islam, the religion of cruelty?

http://www.peta.org/blog/cruelty-behind-muslim-ritual-slaughter/


12 posted on 08/14/2016 4:49:15 AM PDT by Blennos
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To: HomerBohn

“...meat blessed by an imam to the glory of Mohammed and Allah.”

Since Islam is a false religion, why should I care what nonsense some imam might gibber over meat? How about if some food is cursed by a Wiccan, would that make it harmful to eat?

I have more important things to worry about.


13 posted on 08/14/2016 4:51:15 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: Original Lurker

So is all of the prepackaged “grass fed” Angus beef. At Safeway. Interesting to note that it used to be labeled as halal. No longer. Same product, same origin.


14 posted on 08/14/2016 4:56:25 AM PDT by Noumenon (We owe them nothing: not respect, not loyalty, not obedience.)
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

But he would place his filthy Muslim fingers on it.


15 posted on 08/14/2016 4:57:27 AM PDT by HomerBohn (Liberals and Slinkys: Good for nothing but make you smile as you shove them down the stairs.)
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To: Vaquero

WHo can afford beef anymore?


16 posted on 08/14/2016 5:01:29 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Blennos
I just changed my opinion of whether It matters or not.

But that is MY opinion ... Not how God views the offered meat.

Personally ... I have a serious problem with my own Christianity with humans I think shoulod be dead

17 posted on 08/14/2016 5:01:53 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof, but they're true ... and it pisses people off)
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To: Noumenon

Yes. I noticed a ‘Halal’ designation on a package of ‘already been cooked’ chicken sausages from Safeway. Very upsetting. Also, I have noticed pork disappearing from some menus. Specifically, pork egg rolls at Pei Wei have been replaced by chicken egg rolls. Not near as good either. We are being insidiously islamicized.


18 posted on 08/14/2016 5:02:43 AM PDT by originalbuckeye ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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To: HomerBohn

All sorts of people handle all of our food that we don’t grow or hunt for ourselves. That’s why I wash stuff. Muslim cooties are probably no worse than any other variety, on average.


19 posted on 08/14/2016 5:05:04 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: central_va

Love beef. But pork is much cheaper.


20 posted on 08/14/2016 5:06:58 AM PDT by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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