Why HALAL Meat Should be Clearly Labelled
Currently, it is not a legal requirement to label Halal meat. That misleads and even deceives those concerned: the Muslims, the Sikhs and animal welfare groups.
Halal meat is a Muslim religious requirement and Sikhs are specifically forbidden to eat it for reasons discussed below. Halal meat is sold in shops and restaurants without clear labelling. Therefore, the issue is important for the Sikhs, Muslims and animal welfare groups.
Meat prepared in the Muslim way to meet Islamic religious requirement is called halal or kuttha, which Sikhs are forbidden to eat. The exact quotation from the Sikh Reht Maryada in Panjabi is as follows:
ਸਿੱਖ ਰਹਿਤ ਮਰਯਾਦਾ: ਕੁੱਠਾ ਖਾਣਾ ਕੁਰਹਿਤ ਹੈ। ਕੁੱਠਾ ਤੋਂ ਭਾਵ ਉਹ ਮਾਸ ਹੈ ਜੋ ਮੁਸਲਮਾਨੀ ਤਰੀਕੇ ਨਾਲ ਤਿਆਰ ਕੀਤਾ ਹੋਵੇ।
The reasons for this bajjar kurehat (taboo) in Sikh Reht Maryada has been discussed from many religio and even political (reference the Mughal period compulsions) angles by Sikh scholars. A personal reading of the Sikh position regarding the eating of meat by Sikhs is that the Sikh Rehat Maryada allows it as a matter of personal choice. However, Sikhs are specifically forbidden to consume the meat of an animal killed as an Islamic []]or any other] religious ritual. The animal must be killed in the most humane way, with minimum pain. Traditionally, Sikhs who do eat meat, prefer jhatka meat by which method the animal is killed with one stroke of the sword or other blade. Meat called patka, of wild or range animals shot following a hunt, is also acceptable. The universal method of stunning an animal to make it unconscious and insensible to pain, satisfies animal welfare groups. That would be acceptable to the Sikhs also.
To quote from a BBC li It is legal for abattoirs to slaughter animals without stunning to meet religious requirements for halal and kosher meat. However, there is no legal requirement to label meat with the method of slaughter, including whether or not stunning occurred. While some abattoirs may choose to label meat as halal, it is not mandatory, and the meat could enter the mainstream food chain without specific halal labelling. []]BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27324224].
Therefore, under the current system, to meet Muslim and Jewish religious requirements, slaughter houses may legally kill animals without stunning them first. Yet, quite remarkably, there is no legal obligation to label meat with method of slaughter. That means that religious requirements can be legally ignored. That affects the Muslims on the one hand and Sikhs and animal welfare lobby on the other. None are happy with the present confusing and even deceptive situation created due to absence of legal requirement to label meat correctly regarding method of slaughter.
Mostly, animals are stunned before being killed. Animals killed according to Islamic ritual, to be sold as Halal meat, are not stunned before slaughter. Those who eat meat including school children, do not know if they are being served ritually killed Halal meat.
So, unknowingly, in UK and many Western countries, Sikhs may be eating ritually killed halal meat, and Muslims may be eating non-halal meat due to lack of clear labelling in shops and restaurants. Recently, a video showed young Sikhs confronting a Sikh owner of a meat shop displaying the Jhatka sign, near Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, Southall, while selling meat from boxes marked Halal.
The legal situation regarding clear labelling of Halal is misleading and needs urgent correction through the Parliament.
Gurmukh Singh OBE
Principal Civil Servant retd (UK)
E-mail: sewauk2005@yahoo.co.uk
Sikh ideology articles: https://www.sikhmissionarysociety.org/