To absolutely loathe the increase in smear campaigns against businesses because of the halal meat debate?

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Well it’s not really a debate, is it? You either don’t care, or you’re absolutely seething because your meat may or may not be halal. But irrespectively of what you think about this, AIBU to think that people ‘outing’ businesses on social media about what meat they use and encouraging hundreds of people to smear them not just in posts but reviews to tank their ratings is just crazy?

Hundreds of people commenting ‘I’ve just left them a bad review on google’ because a (British owned baked potato) business extended their trading hours to their Muslim customers? People who have never bought anything from them in their life, probably geographically will never go there. Actively trying to sabotage a business because you think you’re what - some sort of activist?

And don’t get me started on the posts where people reach out to these poor customer service reps in supermarkets to ask them if the meat they sell is halal because of this mad narrative that ‘80% of supermarket meat is halal’ - where has this nonsense come from?!?! 😂 People screenshotting and commenting about how ‘Clare from Lidl’ is avoiding the question when she probably doesn’t have a scooby and the answer probably isn’t a straight yes or no either!

Madness. Utter madness. People treating this like it’s a full time job.

I don't need to be an oracle. When I hear people complaining halal meat because of concerns about animal cruelty but then see those same people happily eating ordinary meat that has been raised using typical factory farming methods, then it's pretty obvious that their concern doesn't actually run very deep.

If someone is athiest they may be against the ritualistic side of its slaughter.

Halal meat and kosher meat is a religious meat
People can chose to want no part in that because we live in a free and democratic society

People have a right to choice and it really is no big deal allowing everyone to make up their own minds about what they wish to consume
If food isn’t labelled then something is being imposed on them that they would otherwise choose not to eat.

It’s not rocket science to impose correct labelling
and I really don’t know why it isn’t done already !!
I can’t believe producers would be so concerned about halal or kosher ( specifying stun or no stun ) written on the labels

Yep. It’s odd anyone has an issue with someone wanting to choose to avoid a religious ritual. People choose to avoid other religious rituals as none are enforced.

We had standard practices to reduce suffering during slaughter. They probably weren’t adequate. They needed to be increased, not reduced.

This is the essential point. No one should be smeared as ‘racist’ for wanting to maintain animal welfare. It does not cause any harm to humans. Protective standards should never be dropped because some people want them dropped.

Well if you look at global history and what has happened to countries like Iran and Lebanon, why wouldn't you be concerned? Legitimate concern or even basic acknowledgment are silenced and it's not a good road to go down.

I don't eat meat but do think anywhere serving meat should state if it's hahal and more importantly if it's from an abattoir that stuns the animals. I don't know why this isn't a legal requirement for halal and kosher food.
The praying as the animal is slaughtered is irrelevant.

Yes, it should be labelled so that people can make an informed choice.

The Halal Monitoring Committee (HMC) approves of non stunned halal products. Its website says it was 'established to help ensure that all Muslims could be confident that the meat and products they consume are genuinely halal.' HMC approval is only given when the animal is not stunned.

That's probably why there's such resistance to labelling, because it would mean that this growing industry would come under greater scrutiny.

Isn't something like 98% of Halal meat produced in the UK still stunned prior to slaughter? They just add a prayer. As somebody who IS interested in the animal welfare side of slaughter, it still bothers me that the consumer has no way of knowing which, of the Halal meat on offer, is stunned and which isn't, by the time it gets to supermarket or potato waggon shelves. Often meat is produced as Halal but not labelled as such, which I do have a problem with, because of the small chance that the chicken that I buy wasn't dispatched as humanely as I believe is only possible with stunning.

But YABU in the thread title, because "the Halal meat debate" is about animal welfare. Scrotes wearing their joggers around their knees like wet nappies don't give a shit about "the Halal meat debate," they're racists being obnoxiously racist to small businesses over a box of bloody dates. Not one of the fuckers would have been worried about if the business serves Halal or non-Halal food or bacon before the brothers made a post about opening late to offer free dates to people who are observing Ramadan. And if the business did serve bacon bits to go on top of the spuds it would never in the scrotes most intelligible moments occur to them to give a shit about the welfare of the pig.

But hand on heart honestly, the people who are demanding that a baked potato vendor adds bacon to their menu and organising mass one star reviews don't know the first thing about the history of Iran and Lebanon. They are just racist thugs.

Nobody should be smeared as racist for wanting to maintain animal welfare, I agree. Animals passing through slaughterhouses should be stunned, and I'm gutted that there is a loophole.

However. Nobody who is leaving 1* reviews for a business they live nowhere near, nobody who is demanding that they stop advertising that their whole menu being Halal (in an area which has a high % of Muslim customers) and nobody who is demanding that they add pork products to the menu, gives a shit about animal welfare. They are racist thugs, through and through,.

Correct labelling has thus far been avoided because it's cheaper to produce most meat as Halal and only label what is going to the market that wants Halal, yet the producers know there would be massive outcry if the general public knew that their burgers were Halal. There's also resistance to labelling Halal stunned vs Halal not stunned, for obvious similar reasons.

easier said then done.

you criticise/campaign against Halal you can get:
ostracised
labelled a troublemaker
called an Islamophobe
labelled a liar — told you don’t understand what halal meat actually is (it’s just meat with a little prayer said over it - that’s all it is)
accused of stoking tensions between minority groups
accused of bringing historical greivances/vendettas from the “home country” to the U.K
might even be accused of a hate crime/jailed/fined

Better to keep quiet.

Ive never liked the way any animals are slaughtered en-masse. It must be the most frightening experience for them, stunned at the end or not. I used to ride my horse past an old abbotoir a long time ago and he would react every time, like he could smell the death.

I do believe that when single animals are kept to slaughter, and are treated well beforehand, then this must be a nicer exit for them as they'd have no idea it was coming BUT a Muslim friend of mine once described how he assisted in killing a sheep once in the Halal way, and it was bloody awful - literally! Panicked animal, bathroom covered in blood etc etc. Even he was horrified. But Halal, Kosher or not, the killing is not nice.

I dont eat meat due to loving animals. I am sad that some large restaurant chains (Nandos, KFC, Burger King etc al) have stopped buying chickens from suppliers who are signed up to looking after them better. Hopefully people will vote with their feet.

Thing is, you have your philosophy, others have theirs.
I eat free range. I feel that the UK should be moving toward higher standards of welfare, not lower ones. But the UK laws are that all animals must be stunned before slaughter …. with exemptions for religious slaughter practices.

Quite apart from these practice which many British people find disgusting and offensive, many of us also can see ZERO reason why there should be exemptions made for ANY “persons living in the UK” whatever their religious background. Because quite frankly, giving exemptions is PRIVILEGE NOT EQUALITY and is grounds for pi55ing people off. As for businesses going along with such bull sh1t, perhaps they have not grasped that their pandering to this bull crap has become somewhat irksome, as if they approve of this two tiered system of law, which quite frankly, is offensive to many.

OP, I am curious: how many exemptions should UK law make for people on religious grounds? Do you think it acceptable to have different sets of laws based on religion? Would it be okay for a Brit in 2026 to go to another country and demand exemptions from their laws merely based on their religion?

Yes, and all this will get worse once the anti-Muslum-hatred Tsar gets to work.

I really doubt that most halal meat is stunned, to be honest. Judging by the website of the Halal Monitoring Committee, only non-stunned meat counts as halal.

Yes, I agree, people would vote with their feet, if they knew. But they don't know, that's the trouble.

For me, the fact that the RSPCA has said that not stunning causes unnecessary distress and suffering should be enough for it to be banned.

Slaughter without stunning is illegal in the UK, but exemptions are given for religious slaughter practices. I am against this, whatever the religion.

If I were to go to Pakistan, for example, or any any country with a different religious belief system from my own and demand exemptions from Pakistani law based on my white Christian religion, how well would that go down? Would you think that was okay in 2026? Or do you think it would be not okay, because that would suit your own agenda?
I ask, because I want you to justify why there should be exemptions in UK law for religious slaughter practice which quite frankly many people find offensive. And frankly, this exemption is not equality, it is privilege.

What if I go to Pakistan and DEMAND that Pakistan change their laws to suit ME an pd MY beliefs? Do you think that would be right? I suspect not.

Do you think 2 tier law systems are acceptable and peaceful, and if so, will you go and tell non western countries about it please? I mean, I can not imagine me turning up in China, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia ready to enjoy privileged exceptions based on being white European Christian.
I will not support any business that legitimises this bullshit. I only eat high welfare meat, and think THAT is the direction the UK should travel in with no exceptions. I find religious slaughter practices offensive and think we should move to higher welfare, and probably at some point, less meat.

How odd. I've spoken about my problems with Halal slaughter methods from an animal welfare point of view for nearly 20 years and never once suffered from any of those things.

Once more for those at the back - that's NOT what the dickheads complaining about a business catering to people who are observing Ramadan are concerned about.

Yes, I agree. There should never have been exemptions made to the laws on stunning.

People can believe in whichever sky pixie they like, but animal welfare takes priority. It was a weak and short-sighted decision to allow exemptions on the grounds of religious belief.

It's a widely reported statistic. Here's a Q&A on UK Parliament:

Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament

There is debate in the Muslim community over if stunned animals count as Halal, as you have seen. When I last looked into this some 15 years ago, most people who wanted to eat Halal in the UK were happy to eat stunned animals who had the prayer said over them.

There is some commentary online that that is changing, but from recent UK Slaughterhouse statistics, the production %s seem stable. I don't know, of the number of people who eat Halal, how many are eating UK or imported meat, compared with non-Halal meat eaters in the UK. That would be an interesting statistic to see.

Next time you go on a diatribe, check your facts first.

The 1933 Slaughter of Animals Act, which was introduced in 1933 to allow Jews and Muslims to slaughter animals in line with kosher and halal rules, came about because the Board of Deputies of British Jews campaigned hard for it.

No Pakistanis DEMANDED halal slaughter because Pakistan didn’t even exist as a nation in 1933.

Your post was utter, utter foolishness.

Yes, although that part of the debate is settled. The RSPCA and the Farm Animal Welfare Council say that non-stunned slaughter causes unnecessary distress and suffering.

Well with most western countries exceptions are made for religious beliefs. Opting out of Sundays for work (as an example) was a law that was passed to allow for religious observance which is based on Christianity when first introduced.

I'm not sure why you are talking about randomly turning up in other countries and demanding that they change their laws to suit your preferences. Presumably you are aware that there are British Jews and British Muslims, so this isn't about foreigners landing in the UK and demanding that we do things differently.

If you only eat high welfare meat, then this issue isn't going to affect you directly in any case, is it? Because you will presumably only eat meat when you know exactly how it has been raised and slaughtered etc, and you wouldn't be eating meat in random restaurants in any case.

So what's the issue, exactly? Is it that you want to stop other people from eating meat that hasn't been stunned? Does that mean you would also want to ban other people from eating standard non-halal meat because of the poor welfare standards associated with most meat sold in the UK? If not, why not?

I think the point is that people are questioning wether it's right that there should be exemptions to UK laws based on religious grounds. Whoever first campaigned for those exemptions doesn't make much difference.

That decision put animal welfare below religious belief, and many people are questioning those priorities.