In Arabic, the word halal means permitted or lawful. Halal foods are foods that are allowed under Islamic dietary guidelines.

Alexa

Halal also means that the animal was raised and slaughtered humanely....very like Kosher meats.
Buy the Halal chicken....sounds like it's a good buy.
Linda C

That's debatable. I wouldn't buy it as the animal is killed by having its throat cut without being stunned first.

I don't think they stun chickens anyway... Part of the halal slaughter process involves praying to Allah at the point of killing the animal, no prayer and the meat is not halal. Not that I have an opinion one way or the other religious-wise.
For some reason the halal chicken we buy at one place where I work has an awful lot of fatty bits in it that need a lot of time to trim off, no idea why as I would think that other than the slaughtering process it's the same chicken.

Both Halal and Kosher meats require that the animal be killed in the most humane way possible. Very different from what happens in standard huge slaughter houses.

I have no problem buying Halal or Kosher meats. As Laceyvail pointed out the animals are killed in as a humane a way as possible.

This is good to learn, as I do buy chicken for the rest of the family from time to time, and try to buy chicken that has been raised and slaughtered humanely. This will give me a helpful guideline if I can't buy from someone I know, and that's a common problem.

Sally

What was the most humane way to slaughter animals in the past may no longer really be. For example, long ago there was no way to stun cattle humanely. Someone who knows more about this than I do can weigh in. I'd think a bullet is the kindest, but that's only practical for cattle raised on a very small scale.

Chickens should be stunned. Have a read of this website below. Halal is not humane.

Here is a link that might be useful: hsa

Here's a BBC article

Here is a link that might be useful: BBC article

Link below is wiki to 'halal'. From what I understand all it means is that the slaughterer invokes Allah's name as he is killing the animal. Both Islam and Judaism demand a knife so sharp that it can split hairs, and I just read an article that rabbis (they are the only ones who can 'kosher' slaughter an animal) who work on large company factory lines like Empire Kosher chicken stop their work frequently to check the integrity of the sharpness of the blade, to ensure 'humanity' and minimal pain to the animal. When the laws were written the rabbis and imams did not think ahead to different technologies. I agree with Islay that there are more humane ways to dispatch an animal. The laws were written to accomplish several things, one of which was to allow those who partook in eating the animal a moment to think of the sanctity of life. How many of us stop before we take a bite of our chicken McNuggets (I know, I know, don't even go there).

That being said, a kosher killed animal may be killed humanely, but not necessarily RAISED humanely. There are grass roots Jewish movements that address just that, a group is developing a seal that indicates a bird was not factory farm raised. I personally have been shopping for a poorly named company called 'Smart Chicken' which does raise and kill their animals humanely (I keep pseudo kosher, or as LindaC once said, 'cafeteria kosher'. I don't eat pork, but I also don't buy kosher killed animals).

I think Islay, I would like to find an article for you that address WHY the Jewish/Muslim stick to the current system. I think someone else might be able to explain it better than me. Some of the discussion does cross over into freedom of religion and different values. I would be careful because very often the arguments can be picked up by those with an anti-semitic (and that includes anti-muslim) agenda, but not always. Seeing an article from the BBC gave me pause.

Here is a link that might be useful: wiki halal

It's interesting. I have great respect for peoples religions and agree that we all need to be sensitive to it. I can understand that a long time ago it wasn't prudent to eat pork or prawns -no fridges, but why hasn't that changed along with other practices? No-one has ever managed to explain it to me and most jewish friends of mine eat pretty much everything. I have only one who keeps strict kosher.
Personally, I won't buy a battery chicken - I only want to eat meat that has been raised and slaughtered in a humane manner. It's up to the buying public to walk away from battery meat. We eat less meat and pay more for it.

**** One more note about Kosher animals - the rabbis (I don't know about Islam) inspect the animal for perfect health, even internally after slaughter. During the mad-cow
era, a downer cow would have NEVER made it to the slaughter house. So those in the know knew it was generally safer to stick to Kosher. I say 'generally' because although the animal may have been healthy going in to slaughter, we don't know what that animal was fed.

Islay, no one really knows the whys of some of the kosher restrictions. All sorts of reasons have been discussed. Sometime the bible gives a reason for the rules and sometimes it doesn't. The one that makes the most sense to me (and its not very strong at that) for the food restrictions is that the biblical priests saw that the second generation of 'Exodus' Hebrews were about to enter a multi-cultural land. In order to keep their identity separate and distinct, the rules were structured so that a Hebrew couldn't dine with non-Hebrews, hence no assimilation, marriage, and population drain. Note the assumption that priests wrote those biblical sections, not the Lord. That's another subject!

If you want to discuss why the rules haven't been changed, I'll take that one offline. If you don't get an email from me via GW, send one to me, or ignore it if you don't want to.

Or, as Tevye the butcher said in "Fiddler on the Roof":

Some people ask me, "How did this tradition get started?" I'll tell you. . . I don't know. . . But it's a tradition!!

Oy, what was I thinking, Tevye was a milkman. Lazar Wolf was the butcher.

May I, as a Christian weigh in? Foods is a good part of what gives Jews their common identity.
I mean...Chopped liver, kreplach, matzoa ball soup, hamantashen,....braised brisket, chopped pickled herring, bagels and lox...
And the list goes on! A commonality. Kosher foods or not. What's not to like!!
Linda C

Jessy, I've sent you an e-mail. Thanks.

Got it!