HISTORY OF RITUAL SLAUGHTER

photo courtesy Wikimedia                               KOSHER AND HALAL

Ritual Slaughter as part of the Jewish religion goes back to the very ancient times of unenlightened savagery, to a time when the Jews thought that it was God ordained to slaughter men, women, and sometimes even the little male children of tribes who were defending there land against the Jewish invaders. ( READ Numbers 31:17-18 ).

The Jews were under a law (contained  within the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament ) to execute adulterers of their own people by stoning, and bash their unteachable juvenile delinquents to death with bricks, ( READ Deuteronomy 21:18-21). In later periods when Islam was formed, Muslim justice required that the hands of persistent thieves should be chopped off, and both in Islam and Judaism the ancient scriptures dictated that if a follower wanted to change to another religion they were to be executed... In Britain these are actions that seem “utterly monstrous” to our civilised society today.  Both Judaism and Islam have been prevented from carrying on many of their vile "traditional" legal practices here, by our own British law system, even though the Jewish and Islamic religious books clearly require it. 

 We acknowledge that the ancients did care somewhat about the taking of animal life back then, and an orderly form of slaughter was commendable within the framework of their beliefs for that time period, "rather than just bashing animals to death with bricks that is".  Ritual slaughter was meant for guidance through through the often bitter existence in the ancient times,  but this was when man sometimes had little or no choice in the matter, you killed animals and ate them with rejoicing, otherwise you and your offspring died of starvation yourselves, that was how the worshipers of Allah of Islam, and Yahweh of Judaism, acknowledge that it was made to be by the creator in the very ancient times long past.  Despite the publishing of research that clearly outlines the painfulness of ritual slaughter and its being unnecessary, still some in the Jewish and Islamic community fail to understand that,  "we no longer live in the ancient past!".

Nowadays the challenges that life presents are quite different, with our bellies full of good alternative food, we can now contemplate to some degree how an animal views the world around itself, and other herd members, and we should take this into consideration as we continue in our own battle to exist, while trying to live an environmentally harmonious life with other fellow creatures. Clearly within the pages of both the KORAN, sometimes written as "QURAN", and also in the BIBLE humans are meant to build on what they were initialy given and grow in knowledge understanding and fine stewardship toward the earth and its creatures, becoming better able to live with goodness and compassion.

Contrary to some peoples thoughts, we all are evolving spiritually, and we have to keep making humane adjustments in line with our current understanding of life and existence, and what is it that we have learnt to date?, an infallible and disturbing truth, that other creatures ( the animals ) beside ourselves are sentient, feeling beings, with complex social structures, and who like us can experience terror, feel distress and pain, and "even grieve", importantly their desire is to stay alive just as ours is!.  Both Islam and Judaism talk of a future paradise which we should aspire to, and it is depicted as a time and place where great peace and tranquility fills the earth, where man treats every other man as his brother, a time when such writers as Isaiah wrote about when:  "Even the Lion will lie down with the lamb, and  "there will be noone causing any ruin" in all my holy mountain." ( see Isaiah 11:6-9 )

We mere mortals have no control over making the lion to be at peace with the lamb, that is in Gods jurisdiction to undertake, but paridisaic conditions in other ways should rightly start with us humans first, of whatever religion we may be.  If this generation fails to join hands and help make the earth into the longed for peaceful Eden we will continue just as we are, making life on earth a perpetual living hell for other creatures, and ultimately ourselves!.

Although progress toward a compassionate vegetarian human race is slow, there are glimmers of enlightenment being accepted by some religious devotees.  A growing number of Jews are becoming vegetarians and now realise that there is absolutely no necessity to kill animals to feed themselves, yet they have found it possible to follow a very full, and meaningful, spiritual life.  Some of the Islamic holy men, now suggest a vegetarian diet for those seeking greater spirituality, and more worshipers are embracing this noble path than ever before, these great changes in lifestyle and compassion that individuals from both religions have made are to be warmly applauded and encouraged!.

In this time of great plenty, such Ritual Slaughter, though masked by prayers over the unfortunate beast, is sadly performed when there is absolutely no necessity to kill, and therefore it should be recognized for what it is, a cold blooded act of “Barbarity” .

Neither the Jewish or Muslim community, nor the rest of the world, can ever enjoy themselves by eating of meat, without first committing, “or paying others to commit“, an act of violence and murder against another fellow being without just cause... The ethics concerning the unnecessary taking of life by humans from even the lowest of creatures is of the greatest import for our society today, for if flouted, it leaves open the door to all sorts of religiously motivated atrocities to be justified.

REALISATION CAUSES SHAME, AND SHAME MOVES US TO MAKE CHANGES