Rupa Huq and animal cruelty
Fox-hunting is in the news, apparently. I don’t know why as the Conservative Party has at last had the humanity to abandon any attempt to re-legalise it. Labour candidate Rupa Huq, however, claims (3.12.19) she has received emails asking her views. She writes: “I am resolutely AGAINST and oppose all blood sports which I find cruel and barbaric. Here I am campaigning on the issue with Brian May, Queen guitarist. This is a piece of retrospective virtue-signalling and a chance to fish out an old photo of herself with a celebrity.But what about the cruel and barbaric practice of halal slaughter? The Labour manifesto states it will ensure policy is informed by the latest scientific evidence on animal sentience. There is mention of “a review of standards within slaughterhouses.” No mention of the present dispensation in law for religious groups to slaughter without stunning. Rupa Huq wrote about it (7.1.18). Let us examine her words. They reveal her character. She promotes the practice and defames people who object to it as racists. She wrote (7.1.18): “Was sent this from as colleague in Oxford. Some mums there are up in arms with a primary school’s decision to serve halal meat only. There are loads of comments up. They are divided between the usual “political correctness gone mad” brigade and those who see these protests as just an excuse for covert racism – I tend towards the latter.”So, she thinks that this group of people – none of whom she knows - are racists. Upon what basis? None. They are racists just because they oppose halal slaughter. And ALL of them are racist. Demonising a whole group of people is STEREOTYPING, particularly perverse in Huq’s case because she knows none of them. “Presumably these parents don’t complain in Indian restaurants where halal meat served?" Why presume that? If they don’t wish to consume halal meat the logical presumption is that they would. This silly remark is intended to paint the people as islamophobic. “It can be argued that halal and kosher slaughter of animals – a simple slit to the throat by knife is more humane than a long-lingering death by stun gun.”The phrase “a simple slit” betrays Huq’s ignorance. The evidence of the RSPCA is that even a rapid movement with a sharp knife cuts through skin, muscle, trachea, oesophagus, carotid arteries, jugular veins, major nerve trunks, and numerous minor nerves, resulting in significant pain and distress before insensibility supervenes, which in the case of a calf can last up to 2 minutes. .As to her “long lingering death by stun gun”. What is her scientific evidence to support that argument? She has none. Evidence is to the contrary. The proposition is inherently ridiculous. She goes on:“Both McDonalds in Southall and Subway sandwich bar on Kingston University campus only serve halal meat as (i) there is a demand from customers and (ii) people of other religions or none are not forbidden from eating it." They are not “forbidden”, but they choose not to eat halal meat because of the pain it has inflicted on animals. It is their right to do that and to say what they say according to their moral beliefs which are just as valid as her religious beliefs. They are forbidden by their own conscience and sense of human decency in not wishing to consume the product of animal cruelty. Huq, in her intolerance of other people’s beliefs, brands them as racists. According to Huq, anyone who objects to halal slaughter is guilty of “covert racism”. That must include the RSPCA. And, of course, they must be guilty of Islamophobia by expressing an opinion critical of the beliefs and practices of Islam. As to a university campus, A student at Lancaster University was banned from lectures after he said he wouldn’t eat a Subway or a KFC because they used halal meat. “I’m completely against ritual slaughter - it causes the animal to suffer. I said this is showing the impact of the UK becoming Islamified.” Fellow students complained. He was suspended unless he took part in a ‘diversity training course’. Every university, I suspect, has a pack of alt-left activists who bully in order to suppress a right to free speech. I wonder, if such an incident had arisen in Kingston University, what the opinion of member of staff Rupa Huq would have been? She would have “tended” to call him a racist.Huq cares for the animals when there is a political point to be made, not as a matter of principle. She reveals herself in her short message to be intolerant and disrespectful of other people’s beliefs and casually accuses them of racism, a criminal offence.
Andrew Farmer ● 2309d12 Comments