Recently, the government of Belgium has instituted a ban on ritualistic animal slaughter. At first, this ban sounds like a good idea, but on further investigation, this is far from the case. This ban directly targets the religious beliefs of Jews and Muslims by making the processes to make meats Kosher and Halal illegal.
Belgium’s right-wing nationalists pushed for this ban under the guise of animal welfare, but come on, who are they kidding with that. This policy is an affront to religious freedom and a discriminatory ploy against Judaism and Islam by outlawing a significant and all-encompassing religious action. The policy claims that slaughtering animals in the processes that make the meat Kosher or Halal are inhumane, which is completely wrong. The method of slaughter that renders meat as kosher “is painless, causes unconsciousness within two seconds, and is widely recognized as the most humane method of slaughter possible,” according to a study done by the Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences.
In 2017, Wallonia, a region in Belgium, instituted its own ban. According to an article in the Brussels Times, at the time, the “leaders of Belgium’s Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican churches have joined to warn against the misuse of increased sensitivity to animal welfare to disguise attacks on the lifestyle and food laws of the country’s Jewish and Muslim population.” Moshe Kantor, the president of Brussels-based European Jewish Congress, told the Brussels Times in June that the ban in Wallonia was “the greatest assault on Jewish religious rights in Belgium since the Nazi occupation of the country.” History is truly repeating itself. In Oct. 1940, the Nazi party of Germany targeted ritual slaughter because of its importance in Judaism. Philippe Markiewicz, the president of the Jewish Central Consistory in Brussels, told the Brussels Times, “the last time Jewish ritual slaughter was under threat was in October 1940 by the Nazi occupiers,” Markiewicz told the Walloon parliament. “The Nazis, responsible for the deaths of millions of men, women and children, were concerned about ritual slaughter because they knew how important it was for Jews.”
These policies are blatant attacks on Jewish and Muslim population. The supporters of these policies claim that in a civilized society, inhumane slaughter methods should not be used. But really, in a civilized society, religious intolerance should not still be a problem. It is ridiculous that Belgium’s right-wing nationalist party is pushing their anti-Semitic and Islamophobic agenda under the guise of a poorly researched animal welfare argument.
