UNITED KINGDOM: Jon Bellamy spoke with the Barnabas Fund

In recent months it's come to light that a number of supermarkets have been selling Halal meat without telling unsuspecting shoppers. The Supermarkets included Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose and M&S.

Halal food is a new concept for many in the UK. Halal literally means permissible. To make meat Halal, it has to be from an animal killed and prepared in accordance with Sharia, including Islamic prayer over the meat by a Muslim butcher.

The Barnabas Fund believe that Christians and other non-Muslims should have the freedom to make an informed choice about whether or not to eat meat that has been religiously slaughtered according to Shariah law. In response Operation Nehemiah has launched a petition online as part of its Halal campaign.

Operation Nehemiah doesn't object to people from different religious backgrounds being catered for by the food industry, but they feel that Halal is not something that should be imposed on everybody else. To talk more about this Jonathan Bellamy spoke with Mark Green, the Deputy Director of the Barnabas Fund.

Jonathan: First of all help us understand what Halal is, what does the word mean?

Mark: Halal means permitted and it's really in opposition to the word haram, which means forbidden in the Islamic Shariah law.

Jonathan: How is the meat prepared in order to stay in accordance with Shariah law?

Mark: It needs to be slaughtered in a particular way and there is a little bit of division amongst Islamic authorities on that. It also needs to be prayed over and it's killed by a Muslim and a prayer said over the animal as it's slaughtered so it's dedicated to Allah.

Jonathan: And when we talk about meat, what types of meats do we mean and is there any one meat in particular more regularly Halal?

Mark: We'll probably tend to find that lamb is more commonly Halal, but it would be lamb, beef and mutton. It would be pretty much anything, chicken as well, anything except of course pork.

Jonathan: So if people didn't want to eat Halal meat, pork would be Halal free.

Mark: Exactly.

Jonathan: Fascinating. Where can you find Halal meat in the UK?

Mark: Well, you can find it in a lot of places. Of course where there are significant Muslim populations you would expect to find a number of Halal shops and Halal restaurants and cafes and they would clearly label that their food is Halal because of course they are appealing to Muslim consumers. Unfortunately, what we are finding nowadays is that there's more and more Halal food just in mainstream supermarkets, restaurants, fast food chains, all sorts of places. It's surprising how much food is Halal. New Zealand, for example, which is not obviously a country with a very significant Muslim population, they have a large percentage of Halal food. Of course that might be linked to the fact that a lot of the food is exported. We also find the same sort of thing in African countries. Uganda is one that I know in particular where most of the meat, if not all of it, is Halal and to a certain extent Muslims have a monopoly over the butcher's business.

Jonathan: Why do you think it's not that obvious to us, because you mention that it's in a lot of supermarkets?

Mark: Well yes, it's actually quite curious. Of course, where you've got significant Muslim populations there will be a lot of labelling of Halal food because of course the consumers there want to know that the food has been prepared within the parameters of their religious rules. Elsewhere it seems to be much more an issue of Halal by stealth, pushing Halal goods and services, because of course we are not just talking about meat, we are talking about a wider variety of goods and services. Meat is the thin edge of the wedge. It seems to be an issue of not labelling elsewhere because of course the general population might react against Halal and seek something rather different.

Jonathan: Is the reasoning for that stealth primarily economic?

Mark: To a certain extent there might be economic factors and I would imagine some consumers would shy away from Halal meat because of issues of animal cruelty. Others might shy away for other reasons and certainly I think there are significant reasons why Christians would perhaps not want to eat Halal food. Not necessarily theological or spiritual reasons but much more a variety of other reasons. At Operation Nehemiah we are not opposed to religious groups having access to goods and services appropriate to their religion, but there are lot of issues to do with Halal, to do with trying to push Islamic products onto the general population. Very often this is viewed as Islamic mission intending to Islamise society in general. There are economic issues when you buy Halal food. Halal meat certification comes from Islamic authority and so there are costs involved there and if a portion of consumer’s money is going off to an Islamic agency you could well be funding Islamic mission, Islamic education, mosque building, or a wide variety of things that maybe the consumer does not want to finance.

Jonathan: So you've set up this campaign, Operation Nehemiah. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Mark: Operation Nehemiah is really addressing issues of marginalisation and discrimination against Christians in the UK. This is becoming a bit of a hot topic. There was a report out by an Austrian NGO cataloguing a wide range of anti-Christian discrimination in Europe and the United States over the last five years. The focus of Operation Nehemiah is a little bit more on the islamisation of society to do with Shariha law, discrimination against Christians, persecution of converts; people who leave Islam for Christianity in the UK and the persecution they can experience. Because of our expertise on issues of Islam, Operation Nehemiah has a much stronger focus on these types of issues where they impact Christians in this country and other countries.

Jonathan: What is the actual issue that you are trying to put to the Government?

Mark: We are requesting that labelling should clearly indicate whether the food has been ritually slaughtered and whether it's been stunned or not, because that's an issue of how animals are treated in abattoirs. It's basically asking for a level playing field and for clear labelling so that consumers have a choice.

Jonathan: This has been hidden for quite a while, but more recently it's started to become a little bit more high profile, it's been in many newspapers. I also noticed it on the One Show a little while ago. Out of that, do you have any early indication of the government's perspective on it? Do they see that this is an issue?

Mark: It's a bit difficult to tell, although interestingly there was a bit of an uproar in the House of Commons last year when they discovered that some of the restaurants in Parliament were serving Halal food without there being any indication or any labelling or notification. I think MPs are probably fairly aware of the issue. Whether it's likely to filter through to the Ministerial levels, we are not sure yet. We are hoping that pressure and a lot of interest in this issue will produce a bit of a move in Government. There is also some legislation going through at a European level.

Jonathan: If people want to find out more about Operation Nehemiah and maybe sign up to the online petition where do they go?

Mark: They can go to our website at www.barnabasfund.org. That website is about the general work of Barnabas Fund. We support the persecuted church around the world. There is specific section there on Operation Nehemiah and they can enter that section and look at a wide range of issues that we're addressing, not just of course Halal food but many others. CR