Scotland for Animals AGM/ social
Saturday 30th january-2pm-Bacchus-Glassford St.-Glasgow
SfA will be holding our Annual General Meeting to give you a rundown of what
we've been doing during the past year to give a voice to Scotland's animals.
This meeting will also be a chance for people to put forward ideas and
suggestions for the coming year and generally meet and have a day with
like-minded folk, it'll be relaxed and informal so come along and get into the
movement for change.
Re: approving news reports of the Scottish Islamic Foundation's day of animal
sacrifice at Paisley slaughterhouse last month here's Scotland for Animals'
response which sadly the papers declined to run (see original article at end).
See you on the 30th.
Re: 'Religion and faith in Scotland' Scotsman 5/1/10
Thank you for this article noting that over 1,000 lambs were slaughtered last
month in one day by one individual at Paisley Abattoir in what amounts to a
ceremony of religious animal sacrifice. More worrying still is that this act was
carried out at the request of and funded by The Scottish Islamic Foundation - an
organisation subsidised by taxpayers' money.
The Scottish Government assures the public that all animals slaughtered in
Scotland are stunned beforehand, including those killed in religious ceremonies.
But despite this, Scotland for Animals have been told by the firm involved at
the Abattoir (who happen to be the main supplier of Halal meat in Scotland) that
the religiously slaughtered animals are "only stunned for about 1.8 seconds" -
If this is at a level which is accepted by the only UK Halal authority which
accepts some kind of pre-slaughter stunning this would not only insufficiently
stun the animal and leave it to bleed slowly to death while fully conscious but
add electrocution to the list of trauma it endures before slaughter.
There are already shameful levels of brutality towards animals in Scotland's
slaughterhouses without reducing their woefully inadequate legal protection
further in the name of God and religion.
The Scottish Islamic Foundation claim to carry out these slaughters so that meat
can be distributed amongst refugees in Glasgow. If the SIF really want to
alleviate poverty in Scotland then there are many more effective ways to do this
than through the suffering of animals.
If readers would like to find out more about religious slaughter they can refer
to our website
www.scotlandforanimals.org
Yours faithfully
John Patrick
Scotland for Animals
The Scotsman- 5/01/10
IT IS A BRIGHT, COLD afternoon in the west end of Glasgow, and the queue at KRK
Continental Food, a halal butcher, snakes out of the door. Today is Eid Ul-Adha,
the Islamic festival commemorating the prophet Ibrahim's willingness to
sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to Allah.. Muslims are supposed to mark
this by arranging for lambs to be slaughtered – an act known as Qurbani – and
donating meat to the poor.
Members of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation have arranged to pick up lamb and
give it to asylum seekers who would not otherwise be able to celebrate Eid. It
is, at once, an act of devotion and social justice.. The SIF is a not-for-profit
organisation seeking to demonstrate the good that Muslims can bring to Scotland.
Inside the butcher's, people shout orders over the whine of the band-saw. This
scene feels ancient and elemental. Seven men are working in a small
meat-smelling space. One wears a chain-mail glove to protect his hand from the
knife. Carcasses, headless and hoofless, are carried in from a van, cut off the
bone into fat-free bite-size pieces, then bagged and boxed.
These lambs were killed yesterday, in Paisley, by Shaukat Ali Faisal, a
65-year-old who slaughtered 1,015 in a single day. With the knife poised on each
animal's throat, he said the name of the person who had arranged the Qurbani and
a blessing in the name of Allah.
The butchers take extra care when preparing this meat. It's a devotional ritual
important to the community. KRK has been trading on Woodlands Road since 1979,
founded by a family from Pakistan. Around three-quarters of Scotland's Muslims
live in Glasgow. According to the 2001 census, there were 42,557 in Scotland,
but it is estimated that the figure is now around 60,000, a rise due in part to
the arrival of asylum seekers and refugees.
Their cars loaded with meat, the SIF team drive to Kingsway Court, an estate of
multi-storey blocks. Outside the community centre, people are queuing for food.
They are from Afghanistan, Kurdistan and Somalia, among other countries. Some
survive on £5 a day.
The Qurbani is handed out in blue bags, together with rice and ginger. There is
liver and other innards for those who want them, but the kids running about seem
more interested in the jumbo tins of Quality Street.
http://living.scotsman.com/features/Faith-and-religion-in-Scotland.5952295.jp
--
Reg. charity: SCO39109
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