Equal Treatment, not just Religious Freedom: On the Methods of Slaughtering Animals for Human Consumption

Abstract

The way to overcome antisemitism is by elucidation; elucidation of—in order to illustrate this point immediately by an example—a Jewish custom which every now and then sparks off antisemitic sentiments: ש ח י ט ה , shechita, the Jewish traditional method of slaughtering animals for human consumption;1 Islamic tradition being related hereto.2 In the following considerations, this topic will be treated from a legal perspective not just because it is of a genuinely legal nature, but also because it regularly triggers various legal consequences, most recently the prohibitive regulations of Wallonia3 and Flanders,4 challenged before the Belgian Constitutional Court, which requested a preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).5