Collateral damage

You will have seen or heard about PMQs with Theresa May’s attack on Corbyn and his mishandling of his party’s antisemitism crisis, and his reflexive counter-attack on the Tories’ you-know-whatophobia.

I’ve just been notified of a programme about male circumcision “A Cut Too Far?”  scheduled for 22:35 tonight in the Question Time slot. (Bated breath.)

By pure coincidence, I also came across a half-hour debate in Westminster Hall about religious slaughter. 

Animal welfare concerns about religious slaughter were expressed by (as it happens) my own local MP George Eustice. Concerns about religious slaughter (and some dodgy practices going on in Halal abattoirs) threaten to undermine the religious freedom currently enjoyed by observant Jews. 

Coincidentally, I’d just written about a related topic in a comment on the open thread. 

I understand that Shechita (Kosher) and Halal slaughter have certain principles in common - that the animal must be slaughtered ‘uninjured’ (this precludes stunning the animal before its throat is cut) but that the Jewish and Islamic requirements are not identical. 

This may be a question of my own personal bias, but I have read several accounts of Halal abattoirs where animal welfare is the last of their concerns. As far as I know, Jewish slaughter is considered to be as clinical and humane as non-Jewish slaughter; that stunning is not always effective and that Shechita doesn’t require prayer as part of the procedure.

As I have said before, the Muslims are always ‘spoiling things’ for the Jews. Their demands and prohibitions have antagonised others and Jews are caught up in the flak - collateral damage if you like. 

It seems inevitable that eventually, Britain will have exchanged its Jews for Muslims. 

Essay By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez

“I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz ... We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

This is a controversial topic. You may disagree. Feel free.

Islamosemitisophobia

You know when the whole class is punished for the misdemeanours of a minority? 

Well, society’s mischief-maker in chief is always getting others into trouble. 

The present issue is the Halal debacle. But also, there is the circumcision debate. And the ‘religious practices’ issue. Religious dress. Oh, and racism.

Society’s mischief-maker is actually ‘the Muslim’. Now that there are so many of them in Britain, or at least it seems as though there are, and they’re so demanding, Muslim related issues are continually dominating the news. They’re responsible for an emerging tidal wave of sexual offences, they’ve been found to be sticking to their own curriculum in schools, they’re clogging up our prisons and procreating multiple Mohammeds at a rate of knots.

Because people are oh so scared of being thought Islamophobic they can’t even accuse ‘the Muslims‘ of being a damned nuisance. 

Take the Halal debacle. Political correctness forces people to use terms like ‘religiously slaughtered‘ meat, or ‘non-stunned meat’, pretending to be solely concerned with animal welfare; all this just to avoid being thought racist.

So because ‘the Muslims‘ have been caught out practicing sloppy, unhygienic and allegedly ill-defined methods of producing Halal meat, and also because of the unsolicited adoption of Halal in schools, hospitals and supermarkets, Kosher food is caught up in blanket condemnation.

Jews are the inevitable victims of collateral damage every time anyone has the temerity to criticise something “Muslim”.   ‘The Muslims’ are spoiling things for everybody else.

I’m told Kosher meat and poultry production is highly regulated, and scrupulously monitored. Whether it is or not, it has never been foisted upon anyone who didn’t want it. 

It has never caused trouble and strife except amongst those who are inherently ‘anti-Jew.‘ I say that because many observers attest to the fact that mainstream mass production methods can cause perhaps more suffering to animal despite, or because of, the hit and miss stunning procedure.  

On Harry’s Place this thread explores it quite extensively. (I'm sorry that the comments will eventually be erased) 

Personally I’m not fussed. I don’t eat much red meat, though when do I buy it I’d rather it was ‘locally sourced’. I’m not religious, and I’m not especially emotionally attached to cattle though I quite like the concept of the happy chicken. I particularly don’t want \the Muslim’ to be the one calling the shots.

Then there’s the circumcision. I plead ignorance about the medical pros and cons. 

Personally I avoid all irreversible body modifications (through choice) piercings and tattoos included. 

One thing I do know, is that in most of the opposition to ‘ritual’ Muslim circumcision, the Jews get caught up too. Frequently condemned, by some Jews and by many antisemites, Jewish circumcision is done at around eight days old, whereas Muslim circumcision is done at any old time; and equating male and female circumcision is plain malicious.  Religious Jews have been practicing bris without any noticeable hullaballoo until ‘the Muslim’ came along and annoyed everyone by imposing their cultural obligations upon the rest of us.

Then there’s this “France ‘no Jews‘ job ad”. When challenged, the company said they didn’t like the idea of religious practices interfering with the working hours. That was plain antisemitism; which religion is it that makes the most unreasonable demands on an employer? Not Judaism.

Some of us find head-to toe black garb, or those pious little faces wreathed in folds of cloth tucked tightly under the chin mildly (or greatly) disturbing. That is because they imply that the wearer ‘hates‘ you. Objecting to ostentatious Muslim dress means the turban, the kippah, the Magen David or the cross on a chain have to be objected to, too. If we express disapproval of ’the Muslim‘, we’re Islamophobic unless we also express equal disapproval of the Jew, the Christian and the Buddhist etc., etc.  If we merely object to Islam we’re racist. 

So when UKIP or anyone else says something disparaging about Halal, they must be allowed to mean just Halal. And so on.