The European Commission organised on 20th October 2022 a conference on Freedom of Religion with regard to religious slaughter, in partnership with the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the UN. Commissioner Helena Dalli delivered the opening remarks.
Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri, Chairman of Irish Muslim Council and Chief Imam of Islamic Centre of Ireland was among the participants attending this meeting.
The conference brought together representatives of EU Member States and other national authorities, special envoys and coordinators on combating antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred, representatives of national Jewish, Muslim and other religious communities, international organisations and independent experts.
In its EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life and in its EU Anti-racism Action Plan, the Commission committed to facilitating exchange of practices between national authorities, representatives of Jewish and Muslim communities, equality bodies, civil society and local level representatives, and to draw on experience of international organisations.
Dr Al-Qadri said :
“The perception that animal welfare and religious slaughter is not compatible is not accurate.
Religious slaughter takes into consideration animal welfare and provides a humane method of slaughtering animals.
1400 years ago when the concept of animal welfare was alien to humanity, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gave guidelines regarding religious slaughtering to ensure minimum suffering and pain to animals.
Not slaughtering an animal in front of others to avoid stress, providing drinking water to the animal prior to slaughtering, ensuring the knife is sharp and a swift cut is used are all guidelines to uphold animal welfare.
It is important that animal welfare exporters and religious slaughter experts engage in dialogue to combat misunderstandings.
A ban on religious slaughter is a direct infringement on our fundamental human right of religious freedom. Such a ban in the pretext of animal welfare rights is actually motivated by anti Semitism and Islamophobia.
The Jewish community is our biggest ally and I thank them for their contributions also during the conference.”
The conference findings and recommendations will be sent to the Commission.
Event Highlights:
