Halal Slaughter Set Against the Alternatives

The bleeding itself is why the method is called ḥalāl: by this method, done properly, the blood leaves the body completely, which is far healthier for the meat than the alternatives. In the ordinary non-Muslim abattoir the animal is not bled in this way; it is shot, often in the head, so that the brain stops and the blood freezes inside the body while the animal is skinned and the meat sold — the unhealthy, dirty blood left sitting inside the flesh, rather than the clean blood that has properly drained. Some abattoirs use what is called a mushroom gun: it fires no bullet, but strikes the animal's skull with great force, like a mushroom head, so that the animal faints for a minute or two, particularly the larger bulls, giving the Muslim slaughterman his chance to say Bismillāh, Allāhu akbar and cut properly while it is stunned but alive. There is the account of one who supervised such abattoirs and saw with his own eyes, many times over, the blow crack the skull outright and kill the animal before the cut could be made — at which point, whatever is said over it, the animal is already dead, and it is ḥarām.

The Jewish method offers a comparison. Jewish practice is very particular about its own kosher requirements: the animal, even a large cow, is walked into a purpose-built box, turned comfortably by hydraulic machinery, and while it rests at ease the rabbi comes and makes the cut, as they call it, and the blood is let out. This is not the Muslim method, and it is mentioned only for comparison; but it raises a fair question — why do Muslims not use a box of this kind themselves? The plain answer is economic. Muslims do not own such an abattoir, and the method itself is slow: where the box method manages perhaps two hundred cows in a day, the ordinary method used for export processes as many as five thousand in the same time, which makes the slower method commercially unattractive to the companies exporting meat overseas. Were Muslims to lobby properly — both those overseas and the local sellers together — this could in principle be changed, but it has not been. For sheep, a milder method is used: a small electric charge, perhaps twelve watts or even less — the exact figure was not certain to the one describing it — freezes the animal for around fifteen seconds, in which time the Muslim slaughterman works quickly, saying Bismillāh, Allāhu akbar, before it recovers.

Muslims themselves have not always handled this well. This was, for a time, a particular subject of study: some Muslim slaughtermen in the past did not properly know how to slaughter at all, and would arrive at the abattoir drunk, working at six or seven abattoirs simultaneously for money, because the non-Muslim proprietors had no way of knowing what ḥalāl actually required. Such a man would put on a cassette recording of the reciter ʿAbd al-Bāsiṭ ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, announce that he had read the duʿāʾ for everyone and that the whole batch was ḥalāl on that basis alone, then tell the others there to carry out the actual work while he collected his payment. Many Muslims in parts of the Middle East received meat handled this way during that period. Regulation has since tightened considerably: bodies such as AFIC, the Islamic Council of Victoria, and further certifying authorities,^**** together with the Supreme Council of New South Wales and others, now control ḥalāl meat procedures strictly, with inspectors from governments such as Malaysia's and Iran's also coming to confirm that the rules are followed.

The process now runs as follows. A butcher contracts a Muslim slaughterman to work at a ḥalāl-compliant abattoir — one handling no pork on the premises — typically from six until eight or nine in the morning, slaughtering a consignment of sheep or cattle for the Muslim market or another. Officers from the Department of Primary Industry and other health-regulatory bodies inspect and supervise to confirm the work meets Australian health regulations; the animals are washed and cleaned, then chilled for at least twenty-four hours before distribution. The following day, trucks branded with the ḥalāl stamp deliver the meat to the Muslim butchers, who between them use perhaps three, four or five known abattoirs.

Chicken is not slaughtered by hand in every establishment; in some it is done by machine, though those known to be reliable still use the Bismillāh, Allāhu akbar method. Where chickens pass a fixed point at intervals of half a second, it is plainly impossible to say the invocation over each one individually; the ruling given is that the single Bismillāh, Allāhu akbar said at the start of the run, since a Muslim is doing the work, suffices for the whole batch. There is the account of a visit made to a particular poultry farm outside Melbourne, some two hours' drive away, to see the process firsthand — the same establishment also served non-Muslim customers, buying at the same counter. A customer had ordered fifteen chickens, and the birds were hung by the feet and cut at the neck so that the blood could drain, before a rotary machine turned them and stripped the feathers away entirely. In another method seen elsewhere, the birds are dipped in very hot water before this turning stage to loosen the feathers — a method that lets the najis blood-soaked water re-enter the flesh, rendering the meat ḥarām. Once the blood has fully drained, the feathers must be removed within, at most, thirty, thirty-five, or forty seconds of slaughter, or the carcass stiffens and the feathers can no longer be stripped without resort to that same hot-water method — leaving, otherwise, a roast chicken still wearing its feathers. Bodies such as the Islamic Council of Victoria, through their ḥalāl meat departments, inspect these establishments one by one to confirm the method used is sharīʿah-compliant; failing that, the meat cannot be eaten. Where a trusted Muslim friend in the country — in Pakabanyol,^***** or somewhere of that kind — does his own chicken slaughter, the birds may be brought and put in the freezer, ten or twenty at a time.