This story is a typical example of , probably well meaning, political correctness enthusiasts making public institutions like our schools compliant with Islamic dietary dogma even though Muslims are only a tiny proportion of the school population.By their logic perhaps they should be making all school barbecues vegetarian affairs because they surely have some vegetarian students, Oh hang on, perhaps they should just stop barbecues altogether because they might have some Anorexic students and they don’t want to offend them by offering anything that is like , gasp, food…
Members of the school’s Parents and Friends Association believed they were being inclusive when they ordered halal-only sausages for last month’s barbie.
But some parents thought it was political correctness gone mad to offer only halal meat.
Parent Diane Rees said yesterday that she was outraged when told by the PFA that “we have to buy halal because we have some Muslim children in the school”.
“I said to the principal, ‘I think you’re discriminating against the majority of the school and appeasing the minority by only serving halal,’ ” she said. “It’s not fair on my children that they can’t eat at the school.”
Ms Rees said she wasn’t anti-Muslim – her concern was over the way animals were killed under the halal method, which involves a knife cut to the jugular veins and carotid arteries in the neck.“They take two long minutes to die and I think that’s bloody cruel,” she said.
But Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said research showed that, done properly, halal was a quick and humane slaughter of animals.
“I think they are using the issue of some halal sausages at a barbecue, for God’s sake, to bring out their own xenophobic bigotry,” he said.
“It was very thoughtful of the parents and friends association to try to cater for Muslims. I think they (the critics) need to get real and get a life on this one.”
School principal David Kilmartin, who has been in the job for only a month, said halal-only barbecues were not school policy and the PFA had been told to provide a choice of meat in the future.
“I don’t think it was done with any malice. I’m assuming there would have been requests from Muslim families to have halal meat,” he said.
Although I have previously expressed concern about the place of ritual slaughter in the preparation of meat I firmly believe that every one should follow their conscience and their taste when it comes to what they eat, but any group of people who seek to impose a set of dietary rules from a religion upon people who do not share that faith are doing no service to that faith or their followers.
After all who has ever heard of a halal pork sausage?
Cheers Comrades
😉
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 
A similar issue was brought up at a university open day meeting. Some PC hippy huggie person suggested that the BBQ to welcome new students should be of halal meats, etc. Another at the meeting asked where we should draw the line? There are vegetarian foods provided for those who cannot eat non-halal meats and for those who do not eat meat. Another person suggested that those requiring halal meat could have fish. Could you imagine how expensive and how much waste there would be if fish was provided? People might prefer fish to meat and you can’t stipulate “the fish is only for those who can’t eat the meat”.
Funniest thing I’ve seen is a student who questioned the organiser of the food at a BBQ asking what this meat was and what that meat was, trying to discern what was not pork (he didn’t mind that the meat wasn’t halal). There was steak, sausages, meat rissoles and vege patties. He was told “that’s beef, I don’t know what’s in those, might be pork, that’s beef theyr’e vegetables”. He was satisfied, eventually. He loaded up his plate with suitable meat choices for his beliefs and then salad and coleslaw. Then he got to the potato salad. He scooped two spoons full of that on his place saying “mmmm, potatoes, good”, and I just didn’t have the heart to tell him that the strips of meat in there were bacon.
You know, added to my above, there might be other people with dietary issues caused by their religion, but you know, we never hear about them. They make do. They fit in.
Ah the world has gone to crap.
When I was growing up, I would ask my dear ol dad, what was in the meal he or mum were preparing, and the response was :
Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies
Religion or not, if we knew half of the crap that was in the food we eat, we wouldn’t touch any of it.
Great anecdote Kae that perfectly reflects the point of this post.
I feel much safer at halal barbeques where no one is eating my relatives.
well there is that 😉
OOoh, sorry, Sockie.
Haven’t they heard of sack lunches? I almost never ate in the school cafeteria when I was a kid.
Hi Tessa
The cooking refereed to here is not for the school cafeteria but fro a social gathering of parents. Here in Oz we often have barbecues for such social functions where the normal fare is sausages (not that different to your hot dogs but without the red skin) that are primarily made with pork. lamb chops and beef steak.