'Halal poultry falsely labelled'

[Uthman]

Up to three-quarters of poultry sold as halal in the UK is falsely labelled, an industry group has warned.

The majority of halal-labelled poultry and a small amount of beef and lamb were slaughtered by machine rather than an individual, Naved Syed, of the English Beef and Lamb Executive Halal Steering Group, told The Grocer magazine.

The meat was being passed off as halal because the slaughter method was not usually printed on labels.

Mr Syed said: "If you told Muslims it was done by a machine they wouldn't buy it. Practically all imams in this country have said that machine killing is not halal. Otherwise there's no difference between halal and non-halal."

The UK does not have a single standard for halal slaughter. Many Muslim countries have outlawed the practice after the internationally-recognised Malaysian Halal Standard MS 1500 removed machine slaughtering as an acceptable practice last year.

The Birmingham Council of Mosques said last week that it did not accept machine slaughter.

Mr Syed said his organisation was carrying out consumer research into attitudes towards halal production.

The study will cover the growth of the Muslim population in England, the demand for halal products, the supply chain and changing consumption trends.

Zahid Hussain, chairman of poultry processor Cappoquin Poultry, told The Grocer: "Machine slaughter is definitely not a lawful condition of halal. You have to have a manual slaughter and also each bird needs to be blessed."

Source

[Strzelecki]

Subhan'Allah.
My parents aren't Muslim, but have warned me of such goings on. :(


May Allah (swt) protect us. Ameen.

[aadil77]

yeah this is true, we've been deceived by the halal industry plenty of times so we an only pray that muslim organisations like hmc grow more support and clear up this mess

[Sampharo]

Sorry to disagree, but most of the muslim scholars following the salaf and Ahlu Sunnah have said there is no problem in machine slaughtering as long as it is pronounced on the machine in the beginning of each batch even if the batch is a thousand. Here is one from Sheikh Ibn Uthaimain -ra-:

حكم التسمية عند ذبح مجموعة من الدجاج

السؤال: قمت بزيارة إلى مزارع الدواجن الوطنية فرأيت كيف يذبحون الدجاج؛ ففي البداية يعلقون الدجاج يعني حتى ما يستطيع أن يتحرك ثم يمر على الذابح فيذبح بدون تسمية فسألت، لماذا لا تسمي؟ قال: لأني أنا أسمي في البداية ولا أستطيع أن أسمي على خمسمائة ألف دجاجة، فأقول عندما أدخل بسم الله، الله أكبر ويكفي هذا، فقلت: من سألت؟ قال: أهل العلم أفتوا بذلك وأجازوها فما أدري يا فضيلة الشيخ! جواز هذا الفعل؟ الجواب: لابد أن يسمي على شيء معين، سواء كانت واحدة أم أكثر -فمثلاً- إذا صف ألف دجاجة ثم عند تحريك الماكينة قال: باسم الله كفى، فإذا صف له ألف دجاجة -مثلاً- ثم تحركت الماكينة وتحركت الأمواس يكفي إذا قال: باسم الله على هذه المصفوفة، فإذا صف له مجموعة أخرى سمى عليها.

Translation:
Ruling on pronouncing the name of God when slaughtering a group of chickens
Question: I visited a national chicken farm here (Arabian peninsula) and saw how they slaughter chicken; they first hang them and then they move by the slaughterer and he doesn't say "bismillah" every time, so I asked him why he doesn't and he said: "Because I say it in the beginning and that is it, I cannot say it 500,000 times, so I say it once Bismillah Allahu Akbar and that is enough." so I asked him who did you ask? and he said the scholars have given a fatwa that this is permissible, so what do you say my sheikh! is this permissible?

Answer: He needs to make the naming on a set thing, whether it was one or more, so -for example- if he lined up a thousand chickens and then upon turning on the machine said: "Bismillah", then that is sufficient, so if they batch a thousand chickens and the machine started working and the razors moved, it is enough if he says: "Bismillah on this batch", now if he gets a new batch and restarts he says another "Bismillah"

Transcript from Sheikh Mohammad Bin Saleh Al-Uthaimain

http://audio.islamweb.net/audio/inde...audioid=111431

Aside from that, the prophet said a dog can be used for hunting, and one should pronounce bismillah on the dog once even if it kills or hunts more than one animal, so that is proof that it is permissible in Sunnah.

They need to produce evidence as to why slaughter by a machine or multiple slaughters by a man with one Bismillah is not permissible, otherwise there is no substance to their claims. Seems to me just that this is competition between the two certifying boards and one is trying to make the other look unreliable.