Hypocrisy, thuggery and corruption in the service of being able to eat shit on your chicken.

For some folk, the only good Muslim-owned restaurant is a closed one. Only a fool would be surprised at Bonni's vehemence: after all, she makes no secret of hating Muslims (even when, like President Obama, they're actually Christian but have black skin). But the campaign of hatred being waged against Sammy Kassen by the local (Brooklyn) mafiosi has all kinds of ironies about it. I mean, America is supposed to be the land of free enterprise and consumer choice, right? So if Tony Gentile is losing business to a Halal food cart, that must mean that the customers prefer Sammy's offering to whatever slop Gentile serves up in his bar. The proper American way to win back business is to start serving food customers wish to buy, not whining to your relatives on the City Council, or littering the sidewalk by illegally chaining benches over the food cart's pitch.

Middle Eastern Halal Food has a Facebook page here, and liking it is pretty much all I can to to help as a resident of Edinburgh. If I were a New Yorker I'd be worried by the stench of strong-arm tactics and council corruption, not the smell from the cart. (Incidentally, I think the picture of "halal slop" which Bonni posts looks more appetising than anything I've ever seen in a Burger King.)

Bonni and her fellow white supremacists lose no opportunity to bang on about how cruel and unhealthy halal slaughter is compared with Kosher slaughter. Well, two can play at that game. Notice how Bonni says that Halal slaughtered animals are "bled out" while only mentioning that Kosher slaughter bans strangulation? The rules are IDENTICAL in this regard: a single stroke of a knife to the throat, followed by the animal's bleeding to death. The Muslims say a prayer over the animal: the Jewish butcher just has to have training from a Rabbi. According to Bonni et al in the comments (though unmentioned in her list) Halal slaughterhouses do not stun theanimals before killing,whereas Kosher ones do. Which I suppose might be the case in the USA, but in the UK the opposite is true. I suspect it may not only be the UK, though: see this quote from the relevant wikipedia entry:

"Shechita is the ritual slaughter of mammals and birds according to Jewish law. Dhabiha is the method used to slaughter an animal as per Islamic tradition. Shechita requires that an animal be conscious and this is taken to mean the modern practice of electrical, gas, percussive stunning before slaughter is forbidden. Most Muslim authorities also forbid the use of electrical, gas, percussive stunning. However, other authorities state that stunning is permissible so long as it is not the direct cause of the animal's death."

Authorities such as this one.

Here is Temple Grandin, one of the world's foremost authorities on humane and inhumane slaughter. She has pretty firm opinions on ritual slaughter methods whatever the religion involved, and explains how both halal and kosher butchers can (and should) minimise suffering. now clearly when an animal is being slaughtered in somebody's back yard rather than an industrial slaughterhouse, her stipulations are unlikely to be followed. However, in those cases it's more likely to be a sheep or goat having its throat cut rather than a cow (sheep and goats are cheaper and much easier to handle). In which case Temple Grandin reckons there is less of a problem (rather surprisingly, but demonstrating her characteristic thoroughness).

Personally, I feel that anyone really concerned about the welfare of the animals they eat would simply stop eating them. After all, my wife and I had lunch on Saturday in a Halal restaurant and as it happens neither of us ate any meat: it isn't difficult. We do often eat meat, though, and I am far less worried by halal or kosher slaughter than by some of the appalling practices in industrial slaughterhouses. Personally I'd rather eat food that's been prayed over (could be by Satanists for all I care) than food that is covered in shit and has been the cause of injuries to workers.

Which is another reason to prefer Sammy Kassen's Halal food cart to the likes of Burger King: or Tony Gentile's dodgy eatery.