(Image Source: The New York Times)

BY EMOKE BEBIAK

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

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Muslim and Jewish communities in the Netherlands are united against a new law restricting their traditional methods of slaughtering animals.

The International Business Times explains the conflict...

“Under the law, Muslim and Hebrew butchers would have to stun animals either electronically, mechanically or with gas before slaughter. This goes against the Halal and Kosher practices of the respective religions, and observers would be forced to buy meat from outside the country.”

A Jewish community leader tells Al Jazeera the bill misrepresents-- and discriminates against religious groups.

“They are called first of all ritual slaughtering, as we’re doing some sort of voodoo or something. We don’t do rituals. It’s our religion we are practicing. And expression religion in our modern Dutch society is not a thing which is appealing to the public.”

The New York Times explains--  the bill was proposed by a small animal rights party but picked up widespread support...

“Surveys have shown that more than 60 percent of people questioned said they supported the bill... Only Christian democratic parties have opposed the bill, not on animal rights grounds, but in defense of religious freedom.”

In the Telegraph- the leader of the Animal Rights Party argues--  animal welfare should come before religious freedom.

“This way of killing causes unnecessary pain to animals. Religious freedom cannot be unlimited... For us religious freedom stops where human or animal suffering begins.”

But for many in the Jewish community the ban has an eerie resemblance to laws clearly aimed to discriminate against them. The chairman of a Jewish council tells CNN...

"The banning of [ritual slaughter] was introduced as an anti-Jewish law by the Nazis in Germany three months after they came into power in 1933."

A blogger for New Statesman points out - religious traditions were meant to minimize the animals’ suffering, so sticking to age-old methods might in fact defeat their purpose...

“The aim of both kosher and halal butchers -- they claim -- has always been to dispatch the animal in as swift and merciful a manner as possible... Instead of crying religious discrimination, should the rabbis and imams not rather be grateful to the scientists for helping them to fulfil the deeper purpose behind their commandments more faithfully?”

The bill has to pass the upper house before it can become a law, which is expected to happen by the end of summer. World Jewish Congress reports religious groups will then have a year to find scientific evidence that traditional slaughter practices are just as humane as stunning.

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