In a move that finally ends the discriminatory slaughtering practices, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) which comes under the Ministry of Commerce has removed all ‘Halal’ references from its Red meat manual. Halal is an Islamic way of slaughtering, which goes against the religious belief system of Hindus, Sikhs and others. Recently, there four of the Hindu AIkyavedi activists were arrested in Kerala for asking a bakery owner to remove Halal symbol from display in his Bakery.
In the document, the word ‘halal’ is first deleted from the contents (page 8). In page 19, the sentence “The animals are slaughtered strictly according to ‘Halal’ method to meet the requirement of Islamic countries,” is replaced with “The animals are slaughtered to the requirement of importing country/importer.” In page 30, “The animals are slaughtered by Halal method in the presence of representatives of recognised Islamic body for certification to meet the requirement of Muslim countries” is replaced with “The animals are slaughtered to the requirement of importing country/importer.”
The portion, “The animals are slaughtered by Halal System under the strict vigilance of recognized and registered Islamic body as per the tenets of Islamic Shariyat. The certificate for Halal is issued by the representative of registered Islamic body under whose supervision, the slaughter is conducted in order to meet the requirement of importing countries,” is totally deleted from page 35. From page 71, “Gelatin bone chips are produced from the bones of healthy buffaloes slaughtered ‘through Halal method ‘according to the requirement of importing country/importer and passed through ante-mortem and post mortem examination”, “though halal method” is eliminated.
There have been complaints in the past about the Halal system waging an economic Jihad on people from other faiths. This move from APEDA will finally put a full stop to the institutionalisation of this discriminatory system.
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