Eating Halal food
Quite a few people have written to me about Halal signs on Australian made food, and asking if I could pass a law in Parliament to force manufacturers to display a big sign on foodstuff so that “True Aussies” and “Christians” can boycott the products.
One constituent wrote: “Their (sic) is an expanding number of food stuffs which are now Halal but the label is not in English. All very nicely hidden with a few squiggles inside a circle. i.e. Biadia chicken products; Cadbury products…boy are they rude when you question them on this. But just for Christmas some products do not have the Halal label. Bega cheese, Leggos even though it has no animal products, Dominos, ditto. As a Christian I am unhappy about an Imam praying over these foodstuffs and having to pay for it. And where does that money go? So I boycott those products. Okay for the manufacturers to have Halal products but why not a big label on the front of the packet so we are aware. We need someone with your voice to make Australians aware of this.”
I thank those who have written so clearly. In answer I will mention the food laws in the three Abrahamic faiths: Jewish, Muslim and Christian. All have similar historical roots.
1. Jewish food laws
Hanukkah started at sundown on Friday December 11. I joined some Jewish friends for their celebration. Hanukkah (Chanukah) is a festival of lights that is symbolized by the candelabrum known as a menorah.
In 168 B.C. the Jewish Temple was seized by Syrian-Greek soldiers and dedicated to the worship of the god Zeus. This upset the Jewish people, but many were afraid to fight back for fear of reprisals. Then in 167 B.C. the Syrian-Greek emperor Antiochus made the observance of Judaism an offence punishable by death. He also ordered all Jews to worship Greek gods.
Jewish resistance began in the village of Modiin, near Jerusalem. Greek soldiers forcibly gathered the Jewish villagers and told them to bow down to an idol, then eat the flesh of a pig – both practices that are forbidden to Jews.
Mattathias, a High Priest, refused. When another villager stepped forward and offered to cooperate on Mattathias’ behalf, the High Priest became outraged. He drew his sword and killed the villager, then turned on the Greek officer and killed him too. His five sons and the other villagers then attacked the remaining soldiers, killing all of them. Mattathias and his family went into hiding in the mountains, where other Jews wishing to fight against the Greeks joined them. Eventually they succeeded in retaking Palestine from the Greeks. These rebels became known as the Maccabees, or Hasmoneans.
The Maccabees regained control of the Temple in Jerusalem. By this time it had been spiritually defiled by being used for the worship of foreign gods and also by practices such as sacrificing swine. Jewish troops were determined to purify the Temple by burning ritual oil in the Temple’s menorah for eight days. But to their dismay they discovered that there was only one day’s worth of oil left. They lit the menorah anyway and to their surprise the small amount of oil lasted the full eight days.
This is the miracle of the Hanukkah oil that is celebrated every year when Jews light a special menorah for eight days. One candle is lit on the first night of Hanukkah, two on the second, and so on, until eight candles are lit.
Special foods and gift giving are also a part of Hanukkah. The rules and regulations concerning food are derived from Biblical laws and rabbinical extensions. A person who follows Jewish Dietary Laws is keeping kosher.
The “kosherness” of a food is indicated by a symbol printed on the food package. Each symbol represents a particular agency’s certification that the food has been processed in accordance with Jewish Dietary Laws. I have no hesitation in eating kosher food. In fact in some places I have been it was the only food on offer. Christians can eat kosher food without any inhibition.
2. Muslim food laws
In Islam, similar food laws known as “halal” are kept. The word “halal” simply means “lawful” or “religiously appropriate”. In Islam, rightfully earned income, for example, is considered to be halal, while stolen property or money are labelled as haram (unlawful). Just as a practising Muslim should not buy a cheap but stolen stereo because it would not be halal, he or she should not consume food or meat that is haram.
In Islam, something is by default halal – allowable, unless it is specifically labelled as haram, which is the exception. For example, all drinks are halal except for alcohol or other intoxicating drinks because of their mind-altering nature. What makes food “halal”? Why must Muslims obey the food laws?
Islam follows the same food regulations as in Leviticus with variations. Although all foods are halal in all five general food groups, animal meat is a special case. Meat is generically halal meaning that the consumption of meat is not absolutely prohibited, but it needs to fulfil two simple criteria to be consumable by Muslims.
Firstly, the meat of all animals may be eaten with the exception of “… dead meat, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that on which any other name has been invoked besides that of God. But if one is forced by necessity, without willful disobedience, nor transgressing due limits, then he is guiltless. For God is Oft-forgiving Most Merciful.” (Qur’an, 2:173).
Sometimes “gelatine” is added to set processed yoghurt. While yoghurt itself is perfectly halal, “gelatine” may make it haram, because we know that “gelatine” is made from pork and other animal leftovers. A prohibition is temporarily lifted at times of crisis when survival is at stake.
The second criterion is the way in which an animal’s life ends, which has to be in accordance with Islamic regulations. Life is a sacred blessing of God to creation, animals as well as humans. If the life of an animal has to be ended for survival, then its life should only be taken in the name of God. Hence, the phrase bismillah (in the name of God) must be uttered just before slaughtering an animal.
Only a Muslim, or other monotheistic person such as a Christian or a Jew, can fulfil this criterion. Muslims, therefore, can eat the meat slaughtered according to Christian and Jewish religious guidelines. Muslims cannot consume the meat of animals that are sacrificed in the name of any deity or idol. When animals are slaughtered for the purpose of food, all blood has to come out of the body. This is achieved by an incision to the jugular vein of the animal.
The task is to be completed with one incision while the eyes of the animal are covered so that it does not see the instrument. An animal should not be slaughtered in front of another to prevent unnecessary stress. It is for these reasons that Muslims establish halal labelled butcher shops in order to make hygienic and religiously pure meat available to Muslims.
Why aren’t Muslims and Jews allowed to eat pork? Consumption of pork is prohibited in the Old Testament as it was considered “impure”. Some health risks (especially in earlier times) are associated with the consumption of pork as it may contain dangerous worms (trichinosis).
3. Christian food laws
The first Christians were Jews and therefore were used to eating kosher food. But when the first Gentiles were converted they wondered if they should also eat kosher. Of course the Jews said, “Yes, they should” but the Gentiles couldn’t see why they should obey Jewish ritual laws such as circumcision and food laws. They did not see that to be a good Christian and follower of Jesus, they should also have to be a good Jew and follower of Moses.
This became the first great debate in the early church. Peter had to face the issue with the first Italian convert to Christ. (Acts 10:9-16, 23-28). In rejecting the Jewish food laws, Peter upset many other believers, and he had to explain his actions to them. (Acts 11:1-18). That did not settle the matter, and later a special Council was held on the issue as Paul and Barnabas were now converting Gentiles and the same issues of circumcision and dietary laws were always raised. (Acts 15)
The Council heard from Peter, Paul and Barnabas, and as church councils usually do, decided on a compromise – all Christians should abstain from food offered to idols, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood (as in black puddings etc).
Within a few years this compromise was in question as the church grew in Corinth. These Greeks wrote to Paul asking for his advice. People who lived in New Testament times did not have refrigeration, so food spoiled quickly. Since it was expensive and spoiled so fast, meat was scarce. One of the best sources for meat was at one of the local temples
All large Greek and Roman cities had many temples dedicated to a variety of pagan gods. Each temple had a staff of priests for that particular cult. When a person wanted to offer a sacrifice to a particular god, he or she would bring an animal for the priests to kill. After the sacrifice, the slaughtered animal would remain at the temple as partial payment for the offering. The priests would clean the animal and use the meat as food. When they had too much meat for their own needs, the temple priests would sell the extra meat at the local meat market. If you went to a dinner where meat was served, it was likely that it came from an animal that had been offered in sacrifice earlier that day.
This raised an issue that St. Paul needed to address with the church in Corinth. Some church members were upset that other members were eating meat that had been offered to pagan gods. Paul addressed this issue in 1 Corinthians 8.
Paul recognized that some of the Christians in Corinth would have no problems eating meat from the temples. Nor should they do so.
So about the eating of meat sacrificed to idols: we know that “there is no idol in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.” Indeed, even though there are so-called gods in heaven and on earth (there are, to be sure, many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist. (1Corinthians 8: 4–6)
The Christians in Corinth who realized that there is one God and that Jesus was the Son of God were not troubled by eating the meat that had once been offered to idols. Meat was meat, and those gods did not exist.
There were other members of the church, however, whose understanding of Christian teaching was not as clear. These Christians were uncomfortable being served meat that had been used in temple sacrifices. As Paul notes: “But not all have this knowledge. There are some who have been so used to idolatry up until now that, when they eat meat sacrificed to idols, their conscience, which is weak, is defiled.” (1Corinthians 8:7)
The problem for Paul is that those Christians who rightly did not have problems eating the meat from idols would too many times criticize those who were having problems. The Christians who ate the meat thought that they had greater insight into the freedom won by Jesus Christ because they were not worried about pagan gods.
Paul was critical of those Christians who thought they knew better than their fellow Christians. He agreed with them in principle that meat was meat, and so they were technically correct in eating it. However these Christians had to make sure that their sense of being right did not become a stumbling block for their weaker fellow Christians.
Thus through your knowledge, the weak person is brought to destruction, the brother for whom Christ died. When you sin in this way against your brothers and wound their consciences, weak as they are, you are sinning against Christ. (1Corinthians 8: 11–12)
Paul wrote that his own choice in the situation he described was to act in such a way that he would not be the source of scandal against his fellow Christians.
“Therefore, if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause my brother to sin.” (1 Corinthians 8:13)
Paul urged his fellow Christians to understand that with the freedom won through Jesus Christ is the responsibility that the individual has towards the community. Decisions that we make, that we might think are our own private business, in fact have social consequences. There is no such thing as ‘a sin that hurts no one’. Paul emphasizes that rather than think of our choices as simply our own business we have to recognize our responsibility to others as well.
I feel free to eat pork. But at Christmas dinners at Rotary, at businesses and community celebrations, where Jewish or Islamic people are present, or Seventh Day Adventist Christians, or Christian vegetarians, then I do not eat pork. I feel totally free to eat it, but out of respect for my friends, I choose not to.
So in answer to the people who have written to me wanting to have food branded as Halal, and who have said: “As a Christian I am unhappy about an Imam praying over these food stuffs and having to pay for it. And where does that money go? So I boycott those products. Okay for the manufacturers to have Halal products but why not a big label on the front of the packet so we are aware. We need someone with your voice to make Australians aware of this.”
You need not worry about Kosher labels, Halal labels, vegetarian labels or anything else. Christians are free in Christ to make their choices regardless of who the butcher was, or whether a rabbi, or an Imam, or a Seventh Day Adventist member certified it clean. Only remember, respect other people’s customs and beliefs.
Rev the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC