http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/09/21/food-halal-london-hospital-restaurant/Exclusive: London Hospital Canteen Only Serves Halal Meat
by LIAM DEACON
21 Sep 2017
Visitors to the canteen of a major London hospital have been left with no choice but to eat halal food, a decision apparently taken despite the Muslim population of the local area being a small minority.
Recent menu options at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, South East London, have included “halal shepherd’s pie” and “halal jerk chicken legs”.
A spokesman for the National Health Service (NHS) hospital told Breitbart London that a private contractor was responsible for the restaurant, and “as the food in the restaurant is freshly prepared on site it is halal so that it caters for all visitors, staff, and patients who visit the restaurant”.
The only other options for visitors and customers who might disagree with halal for animal welfare or other reasons are vegetarian meals.
According to the 2011 census, just 6.8 per cent of people in the Royal Borough of Greenwich where the hospital is located are Muslim. Some 52.9 per cent self-reported as Christian.
Halal meat comes from animals killed in accordance with shariah law, with the throat slit in a single cut whilst Quranic verses are read out.
Many animal rights groups claim the practice is cruel and inhumane, as common interpretations of Islamic law require the animal to be alive and conscious when the throat is slit. The RSPCA who run an ehtical food awareness campaign say slaughter without pre-stunning causes “unnecessary suffering”.
Stunning of livestock has been mandatory in across the European Union since 1979, but exemptions are made for religious slaughter.
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