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[Contents ]-[Foreword]-[Terms]-[General principles]-[Methods of slaughter]
[Consumption of meat]-[Stunning of animals]-[Stunning and pain]

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Foreword

Hussein A. Gezairy, MD FRCS
Regional Director for the
Eastern Mediterranean Region of
the World Health Organization

On behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO), it gives me great pleasure to introduce this important booklet, which contains the outcome of a series of meetings attended by a panel of prominent scholars learned in Islamic law, as well as other experts. The subject under discussion is important to the health of Muslims everywhere.

Perhaps one of the most crucial aspects of health care is that relating to food and drink. Therefore, one of the major principles of primary health care (WHO is approach towards securing health for all), is to bring about good health for people by providing them with the basic needs of life, such as proper nutrition and clean water. At the same time people must behave moderately with regards to nutrition, avoid excess and harm.

The world nowadays suffers from two contradictory types of disease, the diseases of affluence and the diseases of starvation.
On the one hand, coronary heart diseases, today's leading killers, can be traced to gluttony and overeating of rich foods that help precipitation of fatty substances called atheromas on the walls of the arteries, causing arteriosclerosis, blocking the blood stream and leading eventually to death.

On the other hand, more than half of the deaths of children in developing countries are directly associated with malnutrition. Malnutrition and iron deficiency greatly reduce work potential. It is also well known that such nutritional deficiencies increase the neonatal risks for both the mother and the child. They increase the maternal mortality rate, as well as the rate of low birth- weight infants, who are at high risk of disease or early death.

 We have also become familiar with trends in which people, for a variety of reasons, undergo a voluntary reduction of nutrition by avoiding eating certain types of food, especially meat. It is therefore our duty to find out the answer as to why people choose not to eat meat, and to come up with a proper solution to overcome such a problem.

One of the main reasons for refraining from eating meat is religious belief, as many people do not eat the meat of animals whose slaughter does not conform to the teachings of their religion. Among those are Muslims living or traveling in non-Muslim countries, where facilities for slaughter according to Islamic Law are not available. In fact, the matter goes even further to include many Muslim countries that depend heavily for food on meat imported from places where slaughter according to Islamic teachings cannot always be guaranteed.

This became a real problem in many countries, and resulted in the abstention by Muslims from eating meat, which, in turn, led to various types of nutritional imbalances. Therefore, Dr Muhammad Abdussalam, Director of International Scientific Cooperation at the Veterinary Institute of the Department of Health in Berlin (which works in close cooperation with the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) started to seek ways and means of dealing with this problem. His Institute invited a prominent Islamic scholar, namely Dr Abdulaziz AI-Khayyat, to observe, at first hand, the slaughter and processing methods adopted at abattoirs and slaughterhouses in Berlin. Dr AI-Khayyat summed up the findings of his visit in an extremely valuable monograph on the subject.

The Institute then decided to invite the participation of a wider group of scholars and experts. The idea was welcomed by WHO and the Muslim World League and WHO and together they convened a seminar on the topic in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A number of international experts working in the Institute provided the seminar with films and slides showing different stages of animal slaughter and their effect on the animals. A number of important recommendations were adopted and a committee was set up to follow up and study certain aspects of the subject. Subsequently, a number of concerned centres in the United Kingdom were visited to investigate certain points related to the issue.

This report includes the outcome and findings of various activities in connection with this subject. We felt that accumulating and publishing these findings could be of significant benefit, as they provide Muslims with religious and health rulings on animal slaughter, and allow them to enjoy wholesome food and avoid what is foul. They also help them not to prohibit what is permissible merely as a result of misconception.

The World Health Organization sincerely hopes that this work will serve
the purpose for which it has been carried out. Meanwhile, we are deeply
thankful to the Muslim World League and the Berlin Veterinary Institute, as well as to all scholars, scientists and experts who participated in the seminar and made this commendable work possible.

(There are rewards for all, commensurate with their deeds, 6: 132)

Alexandria, Zul Hijja 1408

August 1988