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Sunday 26 September 2010

Are there Four Million Muslims in the UK? According to the Retail Sector, Yes.

Successful retailers are canny about customer preferences and purchasing power, and no specialist trade publication in the retail sector would last for long if it published information which did not assist its readership in increasing turnover and profits. The information contained in a lengthy feature entitled ‘Halal here we come’ which was published last month by the Online Meat Trades Journal is therefore of interest to more than the meat sector, insofar as its analysis of the Muslim market in the UK reveals some surprising statistics.

As the Mail on Sunday revealed last Sunday, millions of non-Muslim Britons are being sold halal-slaughtered meat and poultry without this fact being advertised, and Muslim consumer habits reveal why this is the case. According to the Online Meat Trades Journal the halal meat market in the UK is worth up to £2 billion per annum, but it laments that most [of this] meat is imported and sold via ethnic retailers.’ It therefore sees considerable scope for the domestic industry to up its share of the halal sector and thereby increase its turnover and profits as outlined in the following revealing paragraph:
The huge halal meat sector may be on the verge of further development. Up to four million Muslims, representing 3% of the UK population consume an estimated 27% of lamb and 40% of poultry produced (according to supplier Janan Meat). Given this and the fact that the European halal food market is worth approximately 15bn (£12.5bn) serving over 50m Muslims a population estimated to have grown by more than 140% in the last decade (according to Halal Industries Group) it is little wonder that mainstream retailers and wholesalers want to tap into halal.
Note the reference to “up to four million Muslims” in the UK. The 2001 census suggested that there were 1.6 million Muslims in the UK, whilst in January 2009 the Times published figures which illustrated that the resident Muslim population was growing ten times faster than any other sector of society, and had by the end of 2008 risen to circa 2.4 million. Clearly, we are witnessing a terrifyingly fast growth of this population, and the more of them that are here the stronger will be their lobbying for the free ingress of their co-religionists from overseas.

The article is also candid about the spectacularly rapid growth of the Muslim population across Europe. Demographic Islamisation is happening and it is translating directly into enforced cultural and political Islamisation as well as modified business practices. Given the figures relating to the percentages of poultry and lamb purchased by Muslims in the UK, why would large producers and abattoirs opt to have a non-halal supply chain when maintaining separate feeds adds to costs and halal slaughter remains (for some illogical reason) legal, particularly when it is the halal sector that is growing the fastest? This not only has to be stopped, but to be reversed: halal slaughter in the UK must be banned, as must be the importation of all animal products derived from this practice.

The non-Muslim apologists for halal slaughter often avoid confronting the matter by claiming that slaughtering animals is painful anyway. However, this assertion is a non-starter, for as a degree of suffering is unavoidable in animal slaughter, why make this suffering worse by slitting the creature’s throat and bleeding it to death rather than stunning? This leads on to the second of the rationalisations used by the apologists: in the UK halal slaughter involves pre-stunning. Although this proviso does exist, many Muslims do not accept that pre-stunned animals truly are halal and thus insist that stunning is not employed. Bizarrely, our law allows for halal slaughter without pre-stunning. The confusion surrounding this issue is illustrated by the comments of Rizvan Khalid (an executive director of a halal processor) on the Food Standard Agency’s (FSA) guidelines on halal slaughter in his interview with the Online Meat Trades Journal:
"I don't see how the FSA can enforce the guidelines, because although good, they are only guidelines."

The issue of whether to stun or not makes it difficult to implement one set of guidelines, he says. "Having studied the stunning issue from a scientific and a religious point of view, I can see the benefits of both." The 'default' practice at Euro Quality Lambs, where an average 15,000 animals a week are processed, is to stun. But for some customers animals are not stunned. "Some consumers only accept non-stun, but some will accept stunning as long as it does not kill the animal," he says. "But the determining factor is not the stunning itself, but how you handle and restrain the animal for stunning or for immediate slaughter." With such diverse and different requirements from customers and consumers, it is difficult to come up with one set of guidelines, he believes.
This illustrates why you should not purchase any meat or poultry labelled as halal. Sadly, some of our major supermarkets are greedily adapting their practices to the growing halal market and thus both Tesco and Asda have been making special efforts to introduce halal ranges.

The fact is that the option of choosing whether or not you eat halal meat is quickly disappearing as Islam’s demographic ascendancy forces its doctrinaire demands upon the rest of us whilst our politicians refuse to recognise let alone tackle the issue. If when you are eating out and no guarantee can be given that your meal does not contain halal-slaughtered produce I would recommend that you either opt for whichever pork-based option is available, stick to game or the vegetarian option. When buying fresh meat, purchase from a reputable local butcher and not a supermarket.

14 comments:

  1. More reasons to shop at Morrisons.
    I asked the butcher in Morrisons last Wednesday if their meat was Halal and was told NO.
    So, get your meat from Morrisons and boycott any store that supplies Halal.

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  2. Well, it's a relief to learn that at least one supermarket chain has not yet fallen to Islam. I'll be sticking with Morrisons (for groceries that is, as I'd not abandon my local butcher).

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  3. Why is it being imported? It should be banned.

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  4. Demand has outstripped supply thanks to our burgeoning Muslim population. Until I started looking into this phenomenon in recent years I had assumed that when people referred to 'halal' meat in the UK it couldn't possibly be meat produced via traditional halal slaughter as it would contravene our stringent animal welfare legislation. How wrong I was!

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  5. So it seems that Morrisons is the safest bet, for the moment. A Bradford company. The irony... Cygnus.

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  6. Yes, that is something that had struck me.

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  7. I don't know about the others, above, but I believe my local Morrisons stocks Halal meat.

    I am not suggesting that all their produce is Halal, but last time I looked there was a specific freezer area for halal produce.

    Unfortunately, there were some whites there at the time I went, with some in their basket....as it was probably about 20p less than the cabinet next door to it. Many people do not care for anything other than price.

    I think it might depend on where you are, and what the demographics are. Muslims are already 32% of my town, so it is inevitable that they are going to be "catering for the needs of the local community" to some degree.

    I would think the regular butchers selling fresh cuts in the stores would be traditional though, but it is worth asking. Whether they know, or tell the truth, is another matter. The only Halal I saw near me in the store was in the frozen section.

    I haven't been in there for about 2 years though.

    As you say, you probably cannot beat an old fashioned local butchers. Not many of them about these days though - thanks to the supermarkets, just for that double irony situation.


    The part about the export market to Europe is an important one, and ties into the thing I mentioned in the reply comments the other week about the proposed 5 acre Halal plant for Wales. I seem to remember some of that was for export to places like Germany and Netherlands.

    Does anyone expect the likes of Peter Hain to oppose such a "great opportunity" for "jobs" and "exports"?.......or the kinds of debates like "well, you must want to sponge off the dole if you wont take the job offered to work there"......

    Wasn't it also the case that under Labour, they had Islamic Butchers as one of the skills needed to get to Britain? Or was that just chefs being called for by the restaurant industry? Maybe it was both. I cannot remember.

    Big business stinks. They care not one jot for you or I, just profits. The Politicians just care about "investment" and "jobs" - no matter what it is for, or what it means for the future.

    Together, they are a toxic brew.

    The Muslims just can't believe their luck. If I were them, I'd probably be the same. The blame has to be directed at the root and not the leaves.

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  8. Stick to pork, or your own chickens! I think the EDL should go into selling strictly English meat. It will be good for England

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  9. je trouve ce blog très interessant !
    Bravo et courage !
    Jeanne la Lorraine

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  10. BA, I’ve performed a trawl in an attempt to find some up-to-date information on the proposed halal plant for Carmarthenshire, but nothing seems to have been published since the story caused a mini-furore a few months ago. You are right in thinking that big business owes no loyalty to anything but its bottom line, and ultimately, the only way that we can hope to change the practices of businesses seeking to make money out of going halal is to withdraw our custom. It was certainly the case that under Labour Keith Vaz was campaigning for exemptions to be made for the immigration of curry chefs, but I’m not sure about halal slaughtermen.

    Juniper, if I happen to be at a public event and I’m uncertain about the provenance of the catering, I stick to bacon and pork.

    Bienvenue chez mon blog Jeanne le Lorraine! My French is poor, so pardon me from reverting to English, but thank you for your encouragement. I’m glad that you find the blog to your liking.

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  11. Anyone know how much of this 'cheaper' halal or kosher meat ends up in pet food? I'm sure a nation of highly vocal and easily riled animal lovers would like to know. Cygnus.

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  12. iam proud to be french and i want françe and england remained white and christian i have no hatred of others,but in my home i want you to be like me...bonjour a tous...

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  13. islamic way of slaughter is the same as the jewish slaughter, cutting the corotid artery, wind pipe and jugular vein at the same time. Blood instantly stops flowing to the brain (making the slaughter painless)and the heart continues to pump as the spinal cord is still intact, this ensures all blood is pumped out of the body. Removing the blood in this manner is extremely hygienic as 74% of bacteria are carried in the blood stream.

    When the animal is stunned Arrhythmia occurs causing blood to remain in the animal which assists diseases spreading from animal to human.

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  14. Calling yourself biomedical scientist is no different to a car salesman calling themselves Honest Dave. Most research contradicts your post. The practice belongs in the dark ages and should be outlawed. Anyway apart from anything else there is the issue of price led subterfuge. How many followers of religions other than the jewish or muslim faith would be comfortable having their meat slaughtered in a manner contrary to their chosen religion? Cygnus.

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