Religious Right Brings Back the Halal Meat Panic

Last October a group of Anti-Muslim activists led by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer protested Campbell’s for making Halal soups in Canada, calling on followers to boycott the company. Halal foods are made according to Islamic dietary laws, much like Kosher foods are made according to Jewish dietary laws. Geller accused Campbell’s of doing the “bidding” of the Muslim Brotherhood and said that “Warhol is spinning in his grave.”

WorldNetDaily believes it’s time for another right-wing panic over “creeping Sharia law” in supermarkets and restaurants, and Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association is happy to help. Fischer warns against eating the food of “the demon God-Allah” and lends his support to a messianic Jewish leader’s campaign against all foods Halal:

Are you eating food sacrificed to idols?

American pastor sounds alarm on supermarkets, restaurants

When you bite into a delicious pizza, succulent sandwich or luscious lamb chops, are you possibly eating food that has been sacrificed to idols?

An outspoken American pastor says yes, and he’s sounding the alarm for Christians to be aware of the Islamic influence he calls “backdoor Shariah” now nibbling its way across the fruited plain.

At issue, says Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Wash., is eating food that’s “halal,” in other words “lawful” or “permitted” for the Muslim diet.

“This is coming to a store near you. This is all over,” says Biltz, who is especially concerned about restaurants serving halal meats.

“At a restaurant, you’re not going to know [if the food is halal] unless you ask,” he said. “I think we need to be aware of these things because they don’t want Christians to know because they just want to sell it and get it out there. … A lot of people don’t want you to know it’s going all over the world. Christians are upset as they’re finding out about this because Christians are saying, ‘How come you didn’t tell me?

Pastor Biltz is not the only one raising concerns.

Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for government and public policy at the American Family Association, said Americans need to look at what’s been taking place in Britain when it comes to the expansion of Islamic food standards.

“Folks in hospitals, schools, and pubs across the U.K. have been eating food that has first been blessed in the name of the demon-God Allah but know nothing about it,” Fischer wrote in a column last fall.

“So Christians in the U.K. have been eating meat over which Islamic rituals have been pronounced, and most of the lamb sold there has had an Islamic prayer said over it at the point of slaughter. … The prayer? ‘Bismillah Allah-hu-Akbar,’ which means ‘In the name of Allah, who is the greatest.’ Some chicken butchers in the U.K. slaughter chickens using an automatic circular saw while a tape recorder intones the Islamic prayer. I kid you not.”