Halal ?

[Punjab2000]

Finding that many resturants now say they are halal with certificates to prove it and even restaurants owned by sikh families - why are they as sikhs doing this i.e feeding others halal food !

If a Resturant is halal then they should advertise it as that i.e Halal on the front door not hide the fact its halal ! feel this is to make money from all the community halal or not.

see exctracts below on the topic

The Food Safety Act and Regulations made under it aim to make sure all food offered to the public is safe to eat and properly described.

Sikhism, A Complete Introduction by Dr. H.S. Singha and Satwant Kaur, Hemkunt Press, Delhi
In general Sikhism has adopted an ambivalent attitude towards meat eating as against vegetarianism. But if meat is to be taken at all, Guru Gobind Singh enjoined on the Khalsa Panth not to take kosher meat ie. Halal meat slaughtered and prepared for eating according to the Islamic practice. In fact it is one of the kurahits for every amritdhari Sikh. One who infringes it becomes patit (apostate).

Introduction to Sikhism by Dr. Gobind Singh Mansukhani, Hemkunt Press, Delhi
The Gurus neither advocate meat nor banned its use. They left it to the choice of the individual. There are passages against meat, in the Adi Granth. Guru Gobind Singh however prohibited for the Khalsa the use of Halal or Kutha meat prepared in the Muslim ritualistic way.

Halal and kosher meat should not be slipped in to food chain, says minister

Halal and kosher meat should be labelled when it is put on sale so the public can decide whether they want to buy food from animals that have bled to death, the Food and Farming minister says.


Lord Rooker said all meat from animals killed by slitting their throats should be marked, allowing customers to decide whether the suffering troubled their consciences. "I object to the method of slaughter," he said.

"My choice as a customer is that I would want to buy meat that has been looked after and slaughtered in the most humane way possible."

His office later said that Britain would play a "full part" on religious slaughter practices in negotiations to introduce a European-wide labelling system by 2010.

Lord Rooker's comments were welcomed by the RSPCA, which is concerned about the experience of animals killed for Jews and Muslims.

Kosher and halal explained

"Kosher" food meets standards laid down by Jewish law. "Halal" food refers to that which complies with Islamic law.

*In both halal and kosher slaughter, an animal is killed with one cut from a razor-sharp knife, severing the windpipe, jugular vein and carotid artery. For meat to be halal, a carcass must bleed dry. Jews remove blood by salting and soaking the meat for three days.


full article www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/halal-and-kosher-meat-should-not-be-slipped-in-to-food-chain-says-minister-805396.html


Tony / Tej - I must make this an announcement as I felt quite cheated after my recent experience !

[londonLIONjatt]

Yes if they consider themselves sikhs then they should not be selling halal restaurant food, at least not unmarked.

It would be against the maryada of an amritdhari khalsa to consume halal or kuttha. But some nihang singhs I know in UK are strict and would only consume jhatka and not even normal kfc, but then again some would lol

[-GT-]

cant even trust the kfc's around here, half of em selling halal!

[Mr Singh 79]

Just to clarify; Sikhs, shouldn't be eating meat, regardless of whether it is Halal or not.

I do appreciate though, that those who do eat meat (me inlcuded), tend not to want to eat Halal meat & I too agree that if a restaurant is serving halal meat, they should make it very clear, so that people who do not wish to eat Halal meat, are not tricked into doing so!

A lot of restaurants & catering companies owned by Sikhs serve Halal meat for some reason & I'm also confused as to why, when there are plenty of non Halal meat eating people out there to give them custom!

[panjab1]

Halal meat is less than half the price of normal meat. It's the reason why these restaurants have started using halal meat. There was a takeaway in my city and the owners of it had proper Sikh parents quite well known in the community. They said they were going to start using halal meat because it would save them loads of money. Never went back after

Any how I've given up meat. Really, you should not eat meat at all. A lot of Sikhs say it's okay, but the fact is that you should only have it if it's the last resort and you catch it, kill it and eat it yourself

[kgbhangra]

this isn't an issue, it should not be made an announcement under the title Halal, im more concerned that sikhs think it is accepted at all to eat even normal meat, never mind halal. SGPC needs to change the Rehat Marydya

[sukhbirsingh84]

Sikhsim neither condones nor condemns the killing of animals to eat.It does suggest the killing of an animal by oneself to fully appreciate what it entails and it suggests that this should be done in the most humane way possible.ie as quickly and painlessly as possible.The British veterinary society has condemned the killing of animals to true halal standards as cruel and inhumane.Sikhisms rejection of halal meat is also based on the belief that any ritualistic killing is wrong.It implies that killing a animal is wrong but if we do it in a particular way that wrong will be righted.Its reasoning is that we are trying to satiate our conscience with a ritual.

For the record I neither condone nor condemn ritual slaughter for those faiths that require it..It is specifically outlawed within Sikhism but Sikhism doesnt allow for its adherents to impose their beliefs on others...

In 2003, an independent advisory group - the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) - concluded that the way halal and Kosher meat is produced causes severe suffering to animals and should be banned immediately. FAWC argued that cattle required up to two minutes to bleed to death when such means are employed. The Chairperson of FAWC at the time, Dr Judy MacArthur Clark, added, "this is a major incision into the animal and to say that it doesn't suffer is quite ridiculous."

And.

In April 2008, the Food and Farming minister in the UK, Lord Rooker, stated that Halal and kosher meat should be labelled when it is put on sale, so that the public can decide whether or not they want to buy food from animals that have bled to death. He was quoted as saying, "I object to the method of slaughter ... my choice as a customer is that I would want to buy meat that has been looked after and slaughtered in the most humane way possible.". The RSPCA supported Lord Rooker's views. [14]

Also the contention that some believe it to be more 'clean' should be tempered by the fact that in the UK shops selling what is described as Halal meat are disproportionately found to fall below health and safety standards when compared with non halal meat retailers.

In a nutshell the Sikh tradition contends that a animal should be killed as quickly as is possible. This same principle is applied by all developed nations in the world and is based on the opinions of leading scientists and doctors who cite proven scientific evidence....

In a nutshell Islam/Judaism contends that an animal should be killed in accordance with a ritual as dictated by their faith...this principle is based on the centuries old opinions of indiviuals, written at at time when the idea that the earth was flat was considered reasonable..

You choose who to believe...
To eat meat doesn't make a 'good man' 'bad' nor does abstension from eating it make a 'bad man' 'good'....remember Hitler was a vegetarian!

As someone who has avoided meat described as halal for the last nine years, I take Tony's point the proliferation of Halal meat restaurants and takeaways presents a bit of a challenge.

Its a strange thing that a ritual should make something halal. I remember my father explaining to me the real meaning of the word and its true intention. That being the food should have been righteously obtained(halal). As example the £2 that you pay for your kebab roll should have been honestly and morally earned. By making it a ritual what you are saying is that a drug dealer can rightly pay for his biryani with his ill gotten gains as long as the lamb in the biryani was killed in a particular way....

[londonLIONjatt]

Dec 20, 2009 20:44:52 GMT Mr Singh 79 said:

Just to clarify; Sikhs, shouldn't be eating meat, regardless of whether it is Halal or not.

Just to clarify, these rules only apply to certain jathebandis, and not all sikhs and not even to proper singhs liek nihangs,

So, to clarify, sikhs CAN eat meat ;D

[londonLIONjatt]

Dec 23, 2009 0:30:45 GMT kgbhangra said:

this isn't an issue, it should not be made an announcement under the title Halal, im more concerned that sikhs think it is accepted at all to eat even normal meat, never mind halal. SGPC needs to change the Rehat Marydya

yes but many sikhs and singhs don;t follow sgpc rehat maryada, including me and nihang singhs.

[londonLIONjatt]

Dec 22, 2009 12:14:42 GMT panjab1 said:

but the fact is that you should only have it if it's the last resort

That rule only applies to taksalis (The singhs who follow Damdami Taksal Baba Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale), Sant Gurbachan Singh Bhindrawaley taught this last resort thing when he was the baba.

[kgbhangra]

You guys have Lost the plot if you think meat is allowed

[Thuada Gurjit Paji]

Dec 20, 2009 20:44:52 GMT Mr Singh 79 said:

Just to clarify; Sikhs, shouldn't be eating meat, regardless of whether it is Halal or not.

in my opinion eating meat isnt regarded as bad as drinking alcohol..yet people do it anyway...

[londonLIONjatt]

Dec 24, 2009 4:28:36 GMT kgbhangra said:

You guys have Lost the plot if you think meat is allowed

lost what plot? So has the Buddha Dal Khalsa fauj with their khalsa traditions also lost the plot?

[ilovejassisidhu]

ewww im not muslim nor do i want to be muslim, halal meat is for muslims

[londonLIONjatt]

yeh thats true, it used to be given to hindustani converts to islam. That is why it gained the term kuttha maas amongst sikhs and hindus.

[Ghost...]

lol@ some people...

they drink, smoke, take drugs, do illegal things and all sorts...

yet they say "NO" to halal meat??

lol, how is that at all acceptable???

[londonLIONjatt]

who are you chatting about?

[Ghost...]

like more than half of this so called "sikh" community in U.K and all over the rest of the world

[BooBoo]

If people care so much about how animals are killed, surely they'd want to stop eating meat. Killing animals for food is wrong (in my opinion).

Is life not sacred?

Those 'sikh' restaurant owners might not even be religious and yet their religion comes up. Being born into a 'sikh' family does not automatically make you a sikh.

[londonLIONjatt]

Well even plants are life.

Well you could explain to me why Guru Gobind Singh made rehit against kuttha maas, and promoted the ancient kshatriya practise of jhatka? And also why Khalsa still practises this maryada?

[londonLIONjatt]

Dec 23, 2009 0:30:45 GMT kgbhangra said:

this isn't an issue, it should not be made an announcement under the title Halal, im more concerned that sikhs think it is accepted at all to eat even normal meat, never mind halal. SGPC needs to change the Rehat Marydya

lol SGPC m,aryada, what a joke, no I mean seriously. All the clueless Singhs are following SGPC sikh rehit maryada instead of purataan rehit maryada that nihangs follow.


SEriously its a joke cos it can be changed so easily.