Halal

Halal (Arabic: حلال‎ ḥalāl, "lawful") is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law. The opposite of this word is haraam. (Source: Wikipedia)

The culture war is heating up again in France as the Presidential election approaches. Media reports here present a pro-religious bias. An example is an NPR report this morning. The issue at hand is one of inhumane treatment of animals by halal butchers and its impact on the French general meat supply. NPR's correspondent describes a French government  minister as having "put his foot in it" by simply saying that some religious rituals may be outdated and unscientific. A rational human being would most likely think this minister should be commended for being grounded in the 21st century.

The issue in France and the issue here is the issue of deference vs tolerance. Religious leaders predictably push for deference to their practices, even in secular societies which offer them official tolerance. This is true of the extremely orthodox Jews in Israel. It is true of the extreme evangelicals and orthodox Roman Catholics in the U.S., as the recent dust-up over birth control illustrates.

Democracy and diversity will work when official tolerance of non-violent, non-intrusive differences is generalized in a society. This includes tolerance of secularism as well as religion. Societies which are constitutionally secular must defer to secularism in governmental decisions. Tolerance may entail specific exemptions, as long as those exemptions do not enable violent or inhuman behaviors in the name of religion. A religious exemption in the case of halal butchering is, in my opinion, is not tolerance. It is enabling and lending government validation to an unnecessarily inhumane violent behavior.

As Islam flexes its social and political muscle in the West, there will be more conflicts like this one. The recent acquittal of a Muslim man on charges of assault in Pennsylvania by a Muslim judge who blamed the victim for the assault because the victim wore a Muhammad costume on Halloween is a minor example. Perhaps the many specialized demands of religions in the U.S. for deference will undermine secular law in the U.S. as it threatens to do in Europe. If it does, religion will gain its deference at the cost of a social harmony and justice for all.