Islam may have a greater fit with the green movement than most people assume. ‘Allah tells us that man has been put on Earth as his representative and it’s our responsibility to look after his creation and, therefore, the environment,’ Muhammad Ridha says.
The 31-year-old has just launched an organic halal business called Abraham Natural Produce.
In what sounds like the perfect premise for a reality TV show, Croydon-born Ridha decided to try sustainable living.
He moved with his wife and son to a 1.6- hectare (four-acre) smallholding in Somerset to make their dream a reality.
They set up one of Britain’s first organic halal outlets.
Now they are rearing chickens and goats and sourcing geese, turkey and lamb from local breeders, before slaughtering the animals at a local abattoir.
‘The modern meat industry, in which cattle breeders in Brazil and Argentina hack down acres of rainforest to make room for cattle for us to eat, is detrimental to the environment,’ says Ridha.
‘Technically, harming the environment might not be haram [forbidden or proscribed under Islam] but as Muslims we should be conscious of the effect that eating meat has, not only on us but on the environment and the animals themselves,’ he says.
‘Halal’ refers to the way in which an animal is slaughtered: there is a method of cutting the animal’s arteries and neck (to minimise pain and drain the blood) and a prayer should also be offered.
But Ridha believes halal principles apply beyond the moment of slaughter.
‘An animal must be treated compassionately. It shouldn’t see any other animals being killed, it shouldn’t be able to smell the blood of other animals and it should never be able to see the knife – all of these things would scare it, which is not compassionate.
‘It must be reared ethically and always have access to food and water – these are all principles laid down by the Prophet Mohammed,’ continues Ridha.
‘Whenever Allah speaks of what Muslims should eat in the Koran, the word halal is followed by the word “tayiib”, which means something that’s good, wholesome and natural. And this has been forgotten – Muslims are eating animals that don’t see daylight or a blade of grass and are chucked into wagons and taken off to slaughter.
That animal is not wholesome or natural, it’s a freak of nature.
‘Many Muslims just look for meat with the halal logo,’ he says, noting they should be considering the tayiib aspect as well.
Much of Britain’s halal meat sector uses intensively farmed livestock, which has been artificially reared with hormones.
Often meat bearing the halal seal has paid lip service to the prescribed slaughter methods: prayers are broadcast over speakers to allow synchronised mass slaughter in unhygienic abattoirs.
‘That’s when profit comes ahead of Prophet and in my opinion it’s pathetic,’ states Ridha.
‘The Prophet tells us how to approach food and how to slaughter an animal, with the understanding that we’re taking a life and it will be treated with compassion.
As well as thinking about what we eat, we need to think about the environment where this meat is coming from.’
www.organic-halal-meat.com http://escapetodhikrtory.blogspot.com/
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