The New Zealand Agricultural Minister David Carter wanted to ban the Jewish method of slaughter shechita in order to protect lucrative trade with the Muslim world.
The Minister has appeared to back down when Jews understandably kicked off in the courts which now states the practice of shechita on poultry is allowed although New Zealand's Jews still have to import beef from Australia.
What LM finds bizarre about the case is which Muslim Government anywhere in the world would support increased trade with a country that bans Jewish slaughter methods. Muslims have no issue with shechita and some eat Kosher food so somehow I fear New Zealand are completely confusing the issue of trade with Israel which Muslims would support a boycott of and Jewish religious customs which Muslims do not support boycotting.
Sticky Date Pudding
1 day ago
Asalaam aleikum. Thank you for your support.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the government and the exporters might have been a little paranoid. But it is not entirely illogical to confuse allowing shechita with allowing export to Israel, in that it is difficult for the government to allow export of halal meat and not allow export of kosher meat if shechita is legal.
New Zealand is the largest exporter of halal lamb in the world and those in the lucrative industry are probably highly sensitive about the possibility of an Arab boycott. So banning shechita was the easiest way (at least, so they thought) to avoid the problem.
Of course, I'd always thought a kosher export industry would have more to gain by exporting to Australia, Europe, and North America where there's more capacity to pay for our quality lamb.
But that's by the by, the government looks unlikely to every allow trade in kosher meat even if it grudgingly allows shechita for local consumption. So the local Jewish community is likely to remain relatively small and poor.
This is nuts. Muslims have no problem with religious Jews eating Kosher, in fact we support them. This is where Western nationalism theories aka tribalism go wrong, & their myopia cannot encompass the paradigm. Ideas are common to both Abrahamic faiths.
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