Brussels: Europe and the Arabs

Tomorrow, Thursday, the European Commission will organize a conference on freedom of religion with regard to animal slaughter, according to a statement issued in Brussels on Wednesday. The Commission is organizing the conference in partnership with the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United Nations.

Helena Daly, Member of the Commission in charge of Strengthening Europe's Commitment to Inclusion and Equality, and the Struggle against Discrimination, will deliver the opening speech. The conference will bring together several personalities and events, as representatives of European Union member states and various national authorities, a number of special envoys and coordinators on combating anti-Semitism, combating hatred against Muslims, representatives of Jewish, Islamic and other communities, international organizations and independent experts will participate.

The statement indicated that in the European Union's strategy to combat anti-Semitism and in the European Union Action Plan to Combat Racism, the Commission committed to facilitating the exchange of practices between national authorities, representatives of Jewish and Muslim communities, equality bodies, civil society and representatives of the local level, and to benefit from the experience of international organizations.

And the European Court of Justice previously ruled that the European Union has the right to rule that electric shocks are required before slaughtering all animals, and to ban the practice of “ritual slaughter” of animals, without infringing the rights of religious groups, in a slap to a complaint submitted by Islamic and Jewish organizations in Belgium.

The judges at the Luxembourg-based court concluded that such rules do not fundamentally violate religious freedom, while this requirement follows the European Union's goal of promoting animal welfare.

The court said, in a statement, that the regulation of animal slaughter in the European Union "does not prevent member states from imposing the obligation to stun animals before killing them," according to the European newspaper (Politico).

She added that this "also applies in the case of slaughter stipulated in religious rites", provided that this does not conflict with the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Human Rights.

Although the charter includes the right to manifest one's religious belief and practice religious rites, the court justified its decision that this must be balanced with the fact that non-fatal shocks achieve one of the goals of the "public interest" in the European Union, which is animal welfare.

The court considers that the decision is not an infringement on religious freedoms, as it considered that it is limited only to “one aspect of the specific ritual slaughter,” and that the slaughter itself is not prohibited, and that the law allows for a “fair balance” between animal welfare and “the freedom of Jewish and Muslim believers to show their religion.”

The decision issued by the highest court in the European Union followed an appeal by Jewish and Muslim associations to ban the Flemish region in Belgium for the halal slaughter of animals, without electrocuting them in a non-lethal manner.

Reacting to the ruling, Rabbi Menachem Margolin - president of the European Jewish Association - said, "This ruling gives the green light for other countries to follow Belgium's example, and if they do, there will be no kosher meat available in Europe."