A meaty issue
With a controversy raging in the UK and Egypt over the strict Islamic practice of women wearing the niqab and Minnesotans arguing over whether Muslim taxi drivers should be able to refuse rides to people carrying alcohol, a standard argument used by people opposed to these practices is that they are sending us down a ...
With a controversy raging in the UK and Egypt over the strict Islamic practice of women wearing the niqab and Minnesotans arguing over whether Muslim taxi drivers should be able to refuse rides to people carrying alcohol, a standard argument used by people opposed to these practices is that they are sending us down a slippery slope. But events in the Netherlands show that the slope slips both ways.
With a controversy raging in the UK and Egypt over the strict Islamic practice of women wearing the niqab and Minnesotans arguing over whether Muslim taxi drivers should be able to refuse rides to people carrying alcohol, a standard argument used by people opposed to these practices is that they are sending us down a slippery slope. But events in the Netherlands show that the slope slips both ways.
Members of the country’s Party For The Animals, a political group expected to win a seat in next month’s elections, are protesting the grocery chain Albert Heijn’s introduction of halal (Islamicaly pure) meat to some of their stores. The activists argue that halal slaughtering methods are inhumane because they don’t allow for anesthesia. Whether or not that is true is, like many religious rules, open to interpretation.
People need to remember that not too long ago the halal butchers, like kosher butchers, were the only people who uniformly put emphasis on killing the animals they slaughtered quickly and painlessly. More important, Muslim Danes are not forcing others to eat halal meat—after all, it’s only offered in 45 of Albert Heijn’s 700 stores—but the Party For The Animals is trying to push their moral beliefs on Muslims. If they suceed, the party could go after kosher meat; then they could attack non-organic meat; and finally they could insist that all Danes become vegetarians. In short, the Danish people need to be wary that their discomfort with Muslims doesn’t take them down, well, a slippery slope.
More from Foreign Policy
Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?
The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.
Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.
It’s a New Great Game. Again.
Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.
Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing
The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.
Sign up for Morning Brief
Foreign Policy’s flagship daily newsletter with what’s coming up around the world today. Delivered weekdays.
By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. You may opt out at any time.
