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Posted on 02/10/2007 4:22:46 PM PST by Lorianne
Furious parents staged protests outside a school over its decision to serve up only halal meat at lunchtimes.
Staff were forced to call the police after one father strode into the school in North London to challenge the new meals policy.
More here... • Muslim organisation offers to help school ban full-face veil
Kingsgate Primary in West Hampstead is among growing numbers of schools with high Muslim populations to use halal-only meat in cooking.
But the menus, which will feature only meat that has been slaughtered in the halal way with a single cut to the throat, have not always been well received.
At Kingsgate, parents carrying placards congregated at the school gates to demand a reversal of the policy, claiming their children would be denied a choice.
But the protests triggered claims of racism from parents of Muslim children, who make up three quarters of the school population.
Yesterday headmistress Liz Hayward was refusing to back down, insisting that a majority of parents had backed the move to halal-only menus in a comprehensive survey of families.
But protesting parents accused her of forcing their children to to conform to "someone else's culture".
Mother Jacqueline Gomm said: "I sent my kids to this school because I don't want them to be affected by religion.
"We can't force our culture on someone else because that's not right so we shouldn't have someone else's culture forced on us.
"The little culture that we have is being lost. I don't know any other country that would do the same."
She added: "I totally deny being guilty of racism.
"We allow people to come into this country and we end up being in a minority.
"We accommodate other cultures at the expense of ours."
Staff at Kingsgate were forced to take phones off the hook after abusive callers claimed to be from the British National Party.
Miss Gomm insisted: "The phone calls from the BNP had nothing to do with us.
"But the sad thing is many people will turn to them because they feel there is no other choice."
One father claims he was threatened with arrest if he steps inside Kingsgate grounds after entering the school to challenge the head's claims over the results of the parental survey on halal meat.
Neville Grant said: "I went to the school to protest because I didn't believe the statistics but the headteacher refused to show me them.
"The next thing I know is when my daughter called me and said that three police cars and a van had pulled up outside my house.
"I'm a next of kin for my son and now I can't even go into the school. It's outrageous."
However one Muslim parent, Solveig Francis, accused the protesters of "naked racism", adding: "It's got nothing to do with choice.
"When you listen to what they say about English culture being imposed upon and so on, it really does give it away.
"They talk about keeping up English values - but the most important value we have is democracy. It's about time that was upheld."
The halal method of slaughtering animals involves blessing them before cutting through the large arteries in the neck with one swipe of a blade.
All blood is then drained away since the consumption of blood is forbidden under Islamic law.
Some animal rights activists have claimed the halal method is less humane than modern slaughtering techniques where the animal is stunned before being killed.
But Muslims believe halal is the most painless method since the neck is severed quickly, preventing the livestock feeling pain.
A spokeswoman from Camden Council denied Mr Grant had been banned from the school.
She added that Kingsgate was among four schools in the borough to have opted for halal-only menus.
She said: "There will also be a vegetarian choice and a jacket potato with toppings of choose, beans or fish, so there is always a hot, healthy option available for all children."
Just look across the pond.
Millions of Americans eat Kosher food all the time -- even Muslims and atheists. The food doesn't taste any different, it's simply been blessed by a rabbi.
If the poor little Brit-brats are eating sloppy-joes from a halal-approved cow-slaughter, then I'm not terribly worried. These ignorant parents would spend their time more wisely electing a government that was resisting Sharia law and not pulling its troops out of Iraq.
This is just easy-to-be-mad-about fluff.
Good lord, Prince Charles looks more like a idiot than Kerry did when Kerry wore the green gown and hood and crawled through the tunnel looking like sperm swimming upstream.
I did some looking on the net and halal isn't much different from kosher. Kosher beef starts with a cow being slaughtered and drained of it's blood in the same way as halal slaughter. The things I read also said it's not just a rabbi's blessing that makes something kosher but the way it's prepared or inspected, so just blessing something isn't enough to make it kosher. As far as the school controversy goes, I don't know if it matters much except for the aspect of bending to the will of immigrants at the expense of a native population. I imagine halal prepared food commands a premium price over 'regular' food.
Kosher is not food "blessed by a rabbi." In the most general terms, it is something that is certified by a rabbi as being in accordance with the law as set forth in the Torah and in Jewish tradition (which may mean slaughtered, or cooked, or grown, or of the substance, or made, etc.). "Blessing" has nothing to do with it. Moreover, just as pork is prohibited under Jewish law, it is also forbidden under halal, which is derived from the Torah (i.e., the Jewish Bible, the Pentateuch, or Old Testament to Christians). Thus, many old traditional English "delights" :-) such as bangers and mash, would not be permitted to be served in an English school that imposed a halal menu on its students.
The result is that many good Christians and atheists alike are drinking kosher soda pop. Who cares? Is that any different from eating halal beef?
The difference is greater than that. It's not just about the way some meat is cut with the prayer to Allah. Halal restricts certain foods -- Forbiden. It's like serving the cola syrup-water without the CO2. So it's a much different analogy.
My employer sells liquid CO2 to Pepsi, Coke and other large bottlers to carbonate their products. We have several plants that offer Kosher CO2, that is, it's blessed by a rabbi and thus the Coca-Cola is "kosher."
The result is that many good Christians and atheists alike are drinking kosher soda pop. Who cares? Is that any different from eating halal beef?
The difference is greater than that. It's not just about the way some meat is cut with the prayer to Allah. Halal restricts certain foods -- Forbiden. It's like serving the cola syrup-water without the CO2. So it's a much different analogy.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...England is lost.
Joining us in Iraq was England's last hurrah.
The once proud British Navy will soon be below 100 ships.
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Halal meat is slaughtered while reciting the name of the pagan moon god Allah which the Muslims worship.
As such it is non-Kosher for Jews to consume, as they are forbidden to consume food offered to pagan gods
Sure.
Potato and beans.
A 'hot, healthy option' right out of David Copperfield.
Not only that, it was 'democratically' chosen by muslim invaders.
It's not like a rabbi stands there and blesses each canister. He certifies the plant -- which probably means ensuring that the equipment used to bottle the CO2 isn't also used for dairy or beer (yeast isn't kosher for passover), and that the equipment isn't contaminated with any pork (some industrial process, not that many any more, still use lard as a lubricant).
The trick is to stock up on Coke during passover. Look for the circle-U on the can. Corn syrup isn't kosher for passover, so for a few weeks each year, the company temporarily switches back to beet or cane sugar, like in the old days. Connoisseurs swear they can taste the difference.
(As an aside, I wonder if that's going to be another side benefit of the push for ethanol -- as demand for corn rises, maybe sugar beets or imported sugar will become more economical than corn syrup, and we'll go back to real sugar in our sofas again ... we can hope.)
They may not "consume" it, but they sure love to play and bathe in it!
Maybe it's just human blood they love to play and bathe in, not animal.
Mark
Um, make that real sugar in our sodas again. When I spill my Coke in the sofa, it really doesn't matter what sweetener it has.
The bangers could be made with beef or veal, but if the traditional recipe involves using blood, as so many traditional English "delicacies" do, then it would be neither kosher nor halal.
After googling around a bit, I've found that there are (no big surprise) varying degrees of how strictly halal restrictions are observed, and which fatwas are observed. Most Muslims believe that animals have to be slaughtered by "people of the book" -- which includes Jews and Christians -- and that the name of Allah must be spoken over the meat, but that can be done at any point before eating, not necessarily during the slaughter. Under the stricter interpretations of both kashrut and halal, prayers must be spoken before and during the slaughter.
Halal certified products are only now becoming fairly common in some parts of Western countries, so practicing Muslims have traditionally bought kosher. As do many goyim, because of the perception that the quality is better; at the very least, kosher products are subjected to an additional layer of inspections and monitoring above and beyond the USDA and local health officials.
The biggest difference I've found is that, unlike kashrut, halal has no restrictions on dairy or on leavening agents (the latter of which which only applies to Jews during passover). Oh, and it bans outright any intoxicants, including alcohol, but that shouldn't be an issue in school lunches. Even in Europe.
With halal certification, as with kosher, private groups do the certifying and give permission to use their seal. They have clergy who may or may not lead congregations; many kosher certifying rabbis have it as a full-time job. With small butcher shops and the like, I assume they just get a local imam or rabbi to sign off.
Wikipedia has an article specifically comparing and contrasting halal and kashrut laws. Wikipedia grain of salt implied, of course.
people that eat kosher food won't cut my or your head off in an effort to force us to eat it..halal people will..
This is simply another way to remove "the other white meat" from everyone's diet.
More frightening, though, is this "halal" slaughtering method ~ that's done on a small scale in shops that don't conform to the need to preserve the cows' heads just in case "Mad Cow Disease" is later discovered.
Fundamentally, the background issues are economics and health. The Moslems in this particular area do not want pork producers to prosper, nor are they concerned if their brains rot.
BTW, around here (I live in an area with beaucoup Moslems ~ mostly Afgans) we have 5 halal butcher shops. The meat is competitively priced ~ many cuts are actually cheaper than you will find in the major chain stores (Safeway, Giant, etc.)
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