(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Muslim observance of Eid al-Adha was held on Sunday in the Netherlands and many Dutch Muslims over the next three days, will be celebrating with a ritually slaughtered sheep. However, it could be the last time Dutch Muslims are able to buy a sheep or lamb that has been ritually slaughtered here in the Netherlands.
The lower house of Parliament has already passed a bill banning slaughtering animals without first stunning them and the senate will vote on the bill on 13 December. If the Senate passes the bill, which was sponsored by the Animal Rights Party, it will mean that Muslims will not be able to purchase their own animals and perform the ritual sacrifice themsleves.
The law affects both Dutch Muslims and Dutch Jews. For most Jews, kosher slaughter requires that animals are not stunned before they are slaughtered. If the bill is passed, it could put several thousand people out of work and will certainly make it more expensive for people to eat kosher meat as it will have to be imported.
For Muslims, it will mean that only slaughterhouses equipped with stunning equipment and people trained to use it properly will be able to comply with the law and at the same time provide halaal meat. This means that individual Muslims will no longer be able to slaugher their own animals for Eid.
Animal-rights activists claim slaughtering without stunning the animal first causes unnecessary suffering. Both Muslim and Jewish experts deny this and say evidence presented to the lower house of Parliament was biased and misleading.
Both the Qur'an and the Torah ban the maltreatment of animals. Muslims and Jews say the ban infringes on their religious freedom.
Opponents of the bill also fear that the practice of Eid slaughter will just go underground if it is banned. In the 1980's, many Muslims in the Netherlands slaughtered a sheep at home for the festival and the papers were full of stories about sheep being butchered on balconies.
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7 November 2011 - 20:30
News ID: 277146
The Muslim observance of Eid al-Adha was held on Sunday in the Netherlands and many Dutch Muslims over the next three days, will be celebrating with a ritually slaughtered sheep. However, it could be the last time Dutch Muslims are able to buy a sheep or lamb that has been ritually slaughtered here in the Netherlands.
