Sweden: Halal slaughtered chickens

A couple of months ago there was a debate about halal slaughter in Denmark, when newspapers revealed that tons of beef in stores were halal slaughtered. 

According to an explanation then, both in the case of halal slaughter and regular slaughter the animal is stunned with a boltpistol.  However, for halal slaughter the bolt does not go through the heart and a Muslim says a prayer.  In both cases, the throat of the animal is then cut.  (Nyhedsavisen, Danish)

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Ivars, Hannes, Eldorado, Willys, X-tra and Rose are some of the most common brands that sell halal chicken.  This means that the meat is slaughtered according to the Muslim ritual.  A discreet marking on the package says this.  The halal notice on the chicken packaging is small and easy to miss in the shop's freezers.   They look different, most commonly the packaging is marked with a symbol representing Islam's holy building, the Kaaba.  It guarantees that the meat is halal - permitted for Muslims to eat.  

Ivars chicken, owned by Sweden's largest chicken producers Lantmännen Kronfågel, sells halal slaughtered meat.  Jenny Fridh, spokesperson for Kronfågel says that the chickens are stunned according to the animal welfare laws before the actual slaughter.  The production line faces Mecca, the carotid artery is cut and the heart pumps out all the blood.  The process is monitored by a religious Muslim who prays: In God's name, Allah is the greatest.

Ivars chickens are slaughtered in Denmark and imported to Sweden.  The product is popular and sells all over Sweden, says Jenny Fridh, who stresses that Kronfågel does not do any halal slaughter in Sweden.  Similarly Hannes chicken, Eldorado breast fillet, Willy's chicken fillet and Coop X-Tras children fillets slaughter in Denmark according to the same regulations of animal welfare and Islamic religious rites.  The products sell in shops all over Sweden.  Danish Rose chicken also offers halal chicken in Swedish shops.

Göran Lennartsson, doctor of theology in biblical studies at the Pentecostal seminary in Uppsala, thinks that halal slaughter is inherited from the Jewish kosher slaughter.  He sees no theological problem with eating halal or kosher slaughtered meat, pointing to Paul's teachings in the New Testament.   

There was a problem eating meat slaughtered in an idolatrous temple, but Paul saw no problem eating such meat.

Jan Hjärpe is an Islamologist ordained in the Swedish Church.  He doesn't see halal slaughtered meat as an animal sacrifice.  On the contrary, the animal is blessed and slaughtered in Allah's name.  Hjärpe says there is disagreement among Muslims in Sweden and some small groups do not regard meat of animals who've been slaughtered without being stunned as halal.

Source: Dagen (Swedish)

See also: Norway: Halal chicken dispute, Norway: Islamic Council halal concerns

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Allah's always the greatest when someone's getting their throat cut.

Also, it occurred to me that Church of the Holy Wisdom, aka the Hagia Sofia, is every bit as "idolatrous" as any building in the Vatican: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-hagia-sophia.htm. It was already "idolatrous" in terms of religious imagery, with all the saints and all, and then they took it even further put some "sign of the Serpent" Allah icons all over the place, some minarets on it, and a big Turkish crescent out front. No hypocrisy there at all.