By: Daniel Nardini
The Dutch parliament has passed a controversial law outlawing the slitting of an animal’s throat to prepare an animal under Muslim and Jewish customs. The practice of meat preparation for Muslims and Jews, called halal in Arabic for Muslims and kosher for Jews, has been the method of animal slaughter for hundreds of years. Instead of animals being prepared in the Netherlands for meats by slitting the throat with one clean cut, the Dutch government will now only allow electric stunning to “humanely” kill animals from now on. Essentially, what the Dutch government is doing is banning halal and kosher practices for the country’s Muslim and Jewish citizens. What this also does is put Muslim and Jewish butchers out of business because they can no longer prepare meats according to Muslim and Jewish customs. This will have an avalanche effect—Muslims and Jews will either have to go to another country to get halal and kosher foods or import them from outside the Netherlands since the new law allows for such foods to be imported (but not prepared in the Netherlands).
If this sounds like an issue of being “humane” to animals versus religion, think again. None of the Netherlands’ neighbors—Belgium, France and Germany—ban halal and kosher meats. What has happened is that the Dutch parliament has been trying to remain stable after elections that gave the Party of Freedom (PVV in Dutch abbreviation) the third largest share of the seats. The Party of Freedom is an extreme right wing party that is against Muslim immigration to the Netherlands and has called for a moratorium on building mosques in that country. Because the PVV has such influence in the Dutch government, the parliament has passed this kind of law that will ban halal and kosher meats being made in the Netherlands. Sadly, the Party for Animals, which also has seats in the parliament, helped to push through this ban. Even if halal and kosher foods could be imported, they would cost far more and this will affect the average Dutch Muslim and Jewish consumer who will be unable to afford them. What are the other alternatives? Either switch to eating like the Dutch, or leave the country.
This seems to be what the extreme rightist members in the Dutch parliament want. They want the Muslims to become “Dutch” or have no life in the Netherlands at all. Coming on the heels of the mass murder of innocent people in Norway by an extremist nutcase like Anders Behring Breivik, this seems almost like a conspiracy by right wing crazies. In many ways it just might be, but the difference is that Breivik decided to do it with a gun and the rightist Dutch politicians have decided to enact laws of discrimination. The effect is still the same. It is to make Dutch citizens, if they are Muslim and Jewish, feel unwelcome in their own country. We must remember that many Dutch Muslims and almost all Dutch Jews were born and raised in the Netherlands. They are Dutch in just about everything. That they are being discriminated against in the very thing that is an important part of their religion, food, is a basic right they are being denied. Worse, it is a sign of Dutch xenophobia—the kind that aided the Nazis when the Germans occupied the Netherlands in 1940. Are we seeing a repeat of history?
No More Holy Meats!
By: Daniel Nardini
If this sounds like an issue of being “humane” to animals versus religion, think again. None of the Netherlands’ neighbors—Belgium, France and Germany—ban halal and kosher meats. What has happened is that the Dutch parliament has been trying to remain stable after elections that gave the Party of Freedom (PVV in Dutch abbreviation) the third largest share of the seats. The Party of Freedom is an extreme right wing party that is against Muslim immigration to the Netherlands and has called for a moratorium on building mosques in that country. Because the PVV has such influence in the Dutch government, the parliament has passed this kind of law that will ban halal and kosher meats being made in the Netherlands. Sadly, the Party for Animals, which also has seats in the parliament, helped to push through this ban. Even if halal and kosher foods could be imported, they would cost far more and this will affect the average Dutch Muslim and Jewish consumer who will be unable to afford them. What are the other alternatives? Either switch to eating like the Dutch, or leave the country.
This seems to be what the extreme rightist members in the Dutch parliament want. They want the Muslims to become “Dutch” or have no life in the Netherlands at all. Coming on the heels of the mass murder of innocent people in Norway by an extremist nutcase like Anders Behring Breivik, this seems almost like a conspiracy by right wing crazies. In many ways it just might be, but the difference is that Breivik decided to do it with a gun and the rightist Dutch politicians have decided to enact laws of discrimination. The effect is still the same. It is to make Dutch citizens, if they are Muslim and Jewish, feel unwelcome in their own country. We must remember that many Dutch Muslims and almost all Dutch Jews were born and raised in the Netherlands. They are Dutch in just about everything. That they are being discriminated against in the very thing that is an important part of their religion, food, is a basic right they are being denied. Worse, it is a sign of Dutch xenophobia—the kind that aided the Nazis when the Germans occupied the Netherlands in 1940. Are we seeing a repeat of history?