(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – Fingers were not lickin’ good for KFC in their bid to sell fried chicken to Islamic customers in Britain. It hoped to woo the Islamic market by opening over 100 outlets selling halal-only meat, slaughtered under strict religious guidelines.

However, Dr Nassem Chairman of Birmingham central Mosque said that the method used for slaughtering by machine was not Halal. The slaughtering must be performed by a muslim while reciting the tasmiyyah on each and every animal, which is an important part of the slaughter for halal, as per the guidance for halal as set by the Food standard Agency. And the fact the tasmiyyah is being played over a speaker means each bird it not blessed individually as it is killed by a machine.

KFC insisted their methods met the approval of the Halal Food Authority, ( Private business).

A survey carried out by Islamic Scholars here in the UK said that machine slaughter was deemed not to be Halal. This view was also endorsed by the Lancashire Council of Mosques at their meeting with KFC, and also the Birmingham Council of Mosques who have also gone on record that machine slaughter is Haraam.

Asking a private business to certify the product does not make it Halal.
Dr Yunes Teinaz, advisor to the Islamic Cultural Centre and the London Central Mosque Trust, said: “What is required is a government-supervised body for the sale and production of halal meat, with the issue of the guidance for halal to the local authority enforcement officers who are now requested to use this advice when planning inspections, food sampling and labelling checks relating to Halal foods.

They should then take appropriate enforcement action where necessary to protect the interests of the Muslim Community. The mislabelling and misrepresentation of Halal foods is of great importance to the Muslim Community, and continues to be an issue of concern.

We have now warned the UK’s 2.4 million Muslims not to eat KFC meat, Imam Yusuf Shabbir of the Lancashire Council of Mosques said: “With KFC confirming to us that it has no intention of changing the mechanical method of slaughter we will advise members of the Muslim community of this.” Any companies claiming to do machine slaughter will also be deemed to be not Halal.

How can KFC claim some of their restaurants are halal and the majority of them are not, when the same slaughtering process has been adopted which is identical for both types of restaurant? It’s either halal or not, it can’t be both, that’s why its important to label every thing 100% Halal.

Though the Daily Mail recently highlighted the situation that all KFC restaurants are using halal chicken, but the UK public don’t know, they have done nothing to change their policy.

Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham said in his interview in front of the Houses of Lords that Machine slaughter / Blessed Blade is not a method for Halal slaughtering. He also stated that companies that are issuing Halal certificates to organizations using machine slaughter / Blessed Blade are committing a crime and should be reported to the government/ Local Authorities.