JNS
The driving force behind the ban on kosher slaughtering
by Melanie Phillips
December 24, 2020

The European Union likes to pose as the avatar of tolerance, freedom and all civilized values. Now it has ripped off its own disguise to reveal something rather more ugly. Its highest judicial body, the European Court of Justice, has issued a ruling upholding the ban on kosher and halal ritual slaughter in two regions of Belgium. The ruling supports the requirement that animals being slaughtered should first be stunned, a practice forbidden in both Judaism and Islam. At present, European regulations ban slaughtering animals without pre-stunning, though exceptions to this have been permitted for religious slaughter. Some European countries, however, have forbidden such exceptions and thus banned kosher and halal slaughtering practices. These countries include Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Slovenia. READ MORE