To answer the question as to whether the meat sold in the markets or served in restaurants is lawful for Muslims to consume, one needs to carefully look at two points:
1. Who has slaughtered the animal (the slaughterer)?
2. How was the animal slaughtered (the slaughtering procedure)?
In the following discussion, we exclude the case when the slaughterer is a Muslim, who has followed the Islamic slaughtering procedure, for it is then clear that the meat is Halal for Muslims to consume.
The slaughterer must be from the People of the Book (i.e. a Christian or a Jew). Animals slaughtered of other religions or people with no religion at all are not lawful for Muslims to consume. Hence, for the meat sold in a Non-Muslim market, one should find out whether the religion of the slaughterer is either Christianity or Judaism.
No!!! Especially not when the percentage of the population who are not from the People of the Book is substantial. Most of the scholars think that 10% or more is considered substantial; and that is not the religion of the majority of the population that matters in this case, but the religion of the slaughterer himself. If the slaughterer is neither a Christian or a Jew, the meat is Haram for Muslims to consume even if the majority of the population are Christians and Jews. Conversely, if the proportion of People of the Book in a certain country represents only a minority but it is known that the meat in the market comes from animals slaughtered by that minority, then the meat is eligible to be Halal (we still need to look at the slaughtering procedure). It should be pointed out here that extrapolating the public polls and statistics regarding percentages of faith in the general population to a particular strip of it (i.e., the meat industry) is an incorrect and misleading way of determining the faith of those who work as slaughterers.
No. Such consideration has no bearing on the ruling in this matter. If the country has a secular constitution but the slaughterer is from the People of the Book, the meat is still eligible to be Halal. It is only if the slaughterer himself is not from the People of the Book that the meat becomes Haram. Governments may nevertheless indirectly affect the final ruling if they enact laws about the slaughtering procedure that would make the meat Haram. The reason that this question was addressed is to show the process of "Tahreer Mahali-neizaa" (Determining the area of contention) in which irrelevant elements are sifted out and the fact that some Muslims repeatedly use it - erroneously - to show that the meat in a non-Muslim market is Haram.
No. Only the religion of the employees who do the actual slaughtering. The religion of the other employees is irrelevant.
No!!! If Halal meat is mixed with Haram meat and we do not know which is which, it is Haram to consume such meat.
The Halal way of slaughtering has already been described in Slaughtering the Halal Way. What we are interested in doing here is to discuss whether the slaughtering methods commonly used in the US make the meat eligible to be Halal. There are hundreds of sources of information on the subject some of which have been used here along with information obtained form Muslim professionals in the meat industry.
All meat sold or traded in the US must derive from animals slaughtered under inspection at a USDA federal - or state - approved facility. The main law addressing the slaughtering procedures of animals at slaughterhouses is the federal "Humane Slaughter Act." This Act, however, provides no regulation for the slaughtering of the more than five (5) billion poultry consumed each year in the US. (See The Slaughtering of Poultry)
For animals other than poultry and ritually slaughtered animals, it is a requirements of the Humane Slaughter Act that livestock must be stunned into unconsciousness before they are killed. The stunning g of livestock in normally accomplished by an electrical device of a gun.
Two aspects of the stunning part of the slaughtering procedure need to be examined. First: its ruling in general and second: whether or not it kills the animal before it actually gets slaughtered.
The ruling of stunning in the Islamic Fiqh is that it is Makrooh or disliked for it causes pain to the animal and it is not a recommended part of the Islamic slaughter way which requires that the animal be treated gently.
We took the second question (whether stunning kills the animal before it is slaughtered) to three professionals in the meat business: Dr. Fawzee As Sayed, a veterinarian and a USDA meat inspector in the area of Fresno, California; Amin Attia, owner of Halal Products International, who has been in the business of meat slaughtering, domestically and for export, for more than ten years; he is also based in Fresno, California; and Ahmad Fallah, owner of International Market in Fort Collins, Colorado. Mr. Fallah has more than thirteen years of experience in the meat industry and is presently completing his Ph.D. in veterinary medicine.
All of these three confirmed the fact that the stunning procedure definitely causes the animal to die in a short period of time (a function of the animal health and other factors) if left without slaughtering. When asked about he percentage of animals that die before slaughtering, each one had a different answer. Dr. As Sayed insisted the delays in the production lines are very minimal an that the percentage of animals who die before being slaughtered is less than one percent. He also said that inspectors can and do identify the animals and order them removed from the production line. Mr. Attia is of the same option as Dr. As Sayed but he believes that the percentage may be as high as three or four percent. Mr. Fallah, however, strongly ascertains based on his experience in many slaughterhouses that the percentage of animals who die prior to being slaughtered is around fifteen (15%) percent. Any estimate, he said, of less than ten percent (10%) is unrealistic.
If the Meat in a Non-Muslim Market was Slaughtered by People of the Book But the We Know that Some of it Came from Animals That Were Stunned and Died Prior to Being Slaughtered, Is the Meat Lawful for Muslims to Consume?
Most scholars are of the opinion that if the percentage of the dead animals is small (2 or 3%) then one can eat that meat because the probability of it being dead is minimal, but if that percentage increases to ten (10%) or more then one can not eat the meat. Dr. Aburrahman Abul Khaliq, however, is of the opinion that one can not eat that meat at all for the default rule when it comes to eating is the meat is Haram until it is proven to be Halal.
The decisive factor of the matter, when it comes to judging the market meat, is to know the slaughterer and the way he slaughters. This means that Muslims in EVERY community are obliged to seek information on these two aspects to the meat sold in their local market. No general conclusion can be drawn to the WHOLE meat market in the US. The subject of Halal meat is a very important one. Meat products and by-products touch our lives in many ways and the consequences can be very grave. We can not claim to be responsible and committed Muslims if we do not take the time to investigate this matter. It is hoped that this article has at least brought to light questions that one should ask in his investigation and exposed potential problems to be aware of. Muslims should organize and act locally to get clear answers to their concerns. They should also be active in trying to change the inhumane slaughtering procedures that are being used in the West. Muslims should also encourage and make sure that Halal meat stores follow the correct Islamic procedure in their slaughtering.
Information From Al Jumuah Magazine