US-based racial harmony organisation calls on Denmark to withdraw non-stun slaughter ban
A Muslim-Jewish delegation came together from the UK, France, Belgium, Germany and Denmark, to meet with the Danish Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Dan Jørgensen, at his office in Copenhagen last month.
The organisation, which is dedicated to promoting racial harmony and strengthening inter-group relations, told Jorgensen that his edict, in February, banning non-stun slaughter – a practice carried out by Muslims and Jews – was doing grave damage to the image of Denmark in Europe and the USA, "and should be rescinded as soon as possible".
Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the FFEU, said: "The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding will be vigilant in fighting this injustice to the Muslim and Jewish communities."
The organisation said Jørgensen had assured them he had been misquoted in the press, when he allegedly said: "Animal rights come before religion." However, delegate Alexander Goldberg, Jewish Chaplain at the University of Surrey, UK, said: "We will judge you not by your words, but by your actions. So far, those actions show that you indeed put animal rights before religious rights."
Jørgensen reportedly told the delegation that the decision to ban non-stun slaughter had been made as the Danish government was carrying out a directive of the European Union, of which it is a member.
However, Samia Hathroubi, FFEU European coordinator and a delegation member from France, pointed out that the EU allows exceptions to this directive to religious communities such as Muslims and Jews, whose ritual slaughtering practices proscribe stunning, and countries like France and Belgium have specifically sanctioned such exceptions.
Jørgensen said he stood by the ban, but would allow Danish Muslim and Jewish communities to continue importing kosher and halal meat products.
