Belgian Muslim Organizations Join Jews in Opposition to Ban on Religious Slaughter Following Court Ruling

Jewish organizations opposed to Belgium’s recently reaffirmed ban on religious slaughtering have been joined by two of the country’s major Muslim organizations.

Belgium’s Constitutional Court last Thursday upheld the country’s ban on all slaughter of animals that are not stunned beforehand. Both Jewish and Muslim religious dietary laws do not allow for stunning the animal, meaning the ban effectively makes both kosher and haram slaughter illegal.

The Brussels Times reported Sunday that the Executive Council of the Muslims of Belgium (EMB) and the Coordinating Council of the Islamic Institutions of Belgium are considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the issue.

The organizations stated that “the current religious slaughter techniques constitute a fully-fledged alternative to stunning and are perfectly compatible with the requirements of public health, food safety, and animal welfare.”

They asserted that the ban is intended to assuage the sensitivities of consumers, and has no real-world benefits.

Following the court’s ruling, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), said that while his group was “disappointed with today’s judgement, we are certainly not surprised as it upholds the status quo in Belgium.”

The ruling, he said, “brings Belgium into line with those few other countries whose bans on shechita date from the Nazi era.”

World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald Lauder said that the decision was “a continued maneuver to discriminate against Belgium’s Jewish and Muslim citizens.”

“By prohibiting religious slaughter without stunning, the Belgium Constitutional Court has placed a potentially terminal obstacle to continued Jewish communal life in Europe,” he asserted.