Kosher vs Halal is a Battle for the Soul of our Supermarkets
18 Aug 2014
In the red corner, a peaceful, creative, successful and admired diaspora that has gifted economic and cultural bounties wherever it has settled. In the blue corner, bigoted vandals, in hock to an ugly and violent ideology, bullying others while playing the victim and demanding special treatment. Guess who our supine supermarkets are sucking up to? Why, the bullies and bigots, of course.
Yesterday, we learned that Sainsbury's had removed kosher products from the shelves of its Holborn store after pressure from Islamist thugs. They later admitted to customers it had been a mistake to do so, but stopped short of issuing a proper apology. Would Sainsbury's, or any other supermarket, have removed halal products from sale in the face of similar threats? Not on your nelly.Indeed, our supermarkets go a step further and feed halal products to their customers in some cases without even correctly labelling it. And I think we've all seen the "halal section" of the meat aisle slowly expanding over the past few years. Brits are right, I think, to feel disorientated by its rapid growth. The amount of space they take up is wildly disproportionate to the number of Muslims in Britain.
In the Tesco near where I live, there is a wider selection of chicken and beef products in the halal section than in the normal bit. So if you want a full range of meat you are basically obliged to pick from cuts that have been prepared for Muslims. I don't know about you, but the thought of my Sunday roast having been ululated over gives me the creeps.
