As Aid El Adha( Feast of sacrifice) is nearing, Muslims living in Flanders, Belgium, want to proceed to the sacrifice without constraint.
To this effect, 48 Muslim organizations demand the withdrawal of the ban on slaughter without stunning in Flanders. Their request is to be forward as a complaint to the Flemish Minister of Animal Welfare, Ben Weyts, and local media reported.
For the record, the Flemish Region has legislated last year to ban slaughter without stunning in 2015. Last June, Ben Weyts announced the implementation of this law, putting an end to an “offense” vis-à-vis the European legislation.
But Muslims believe that it’s an “illegal decision”. With the approach of Eid El Adha celebrated this year in the second half of September, 48 organizations requested the minister to withdraw this decision “by 1 September,” the source said.
However, Ben Weyts is not budging at all. In the press, he said he does not want to be intimidated and stands by its “threat or no” decision. The organization of animal rights, Gaia, has taken the defense of the said minister believing the approach of Muslim organizations to be “too absurd”.
The problem with slaughter without stunning in Belgium is that its ban varies by region. In Brussels, Muslims still practice it without worry. While this is perhaps not for long, since the State Council in early July, found that illegal. Not to mention the project of the Secretary of State for Brussels Animal Welfare, Bianca Debaets.
Although this year the Muslim slaughterers will be trained to “relieve stress and suffering of animals,” it is not excluded that the practice will be banned in 2016. In any case, the Secretary of State intends to find “a structural solution “to the region.
Meanwhile waiting for what the Brussels authorities will decide next year, Muslims in Flanders request that their religious principles be taken into account.
