Butterball is now backpedaling and has scrubbed its website of all "halal certification." Why? What are they hiding? I never thought that Butterball would be this dishonest in dealing with their customers. It shows an utter contempt and lack of respect for the American people. And what an incredibly stupid way to deal with a public relations disaster. It took them five days to come up with this?
The Butterball website (same page) is now scrubbed: (thanks to Atlas commenter,'my Brains hurt')
The Rachel Maddow Show has claimed that the Butterball turkeys are not halal. However, Butterball is giving out conflicting information. Multiple people contacted them after we first publicized the response from their representative saying that their turkeys were certified halal, and Butterball confirmed this numerous times.
Five days later, on the Rachel Maddow show, they claim that only their turkeys for export are halal. This, however, appears to be a face-saving claim on their part, as it was not told to the many who inquired previously. Every radio show host who interviewed me this week had contacted Butterball and confirmed that all of their whole turkeys were certified halal.
Butterball should clarify this matter once and for all. This latest game of hide and go seek shows an utter lack of respect for the Butterball customer.
We have no objection to halal turkeys being sold as long as they are clearly labeled as such, and as long as non-halal turkeys are available. If Butterball does not make them available, we will take our business elsewhere.
UPDATE: Butterball even scrubbed the word Halal from their glossary. Thanks to the eagle-eyed Kamala.
Old page: (cache) New page: No more Halal
No more Halal between Habaneros and Half and Half! Kamala also points out:
If you watch the clip on Maddow it's very vague about what Butterball is actually saying and doing. The quote is, "Our domestic products are not halal certified and thus, do not require any additional on-package labeling... we applied for and met the necessary requirements of halal processing for a segment of our business. Butterball whole turkeys are produced in a manner that meets those requirements if needed, but only turkeys exported to specific countries are certified halal"
This "backtrack" could actually be admitting to the problem you pinpointed in the first place -- namely, that all turkeys are produced in a "manner" that is compatible with Halal certification (i.e., Islamic blessing, etc.), but that only some of them are labeled this way.
UPDATE: John Kelly nails it in the comments:
The Rachel Maddow Show has claimed that the Butterball turkeys are not "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.
Has anyone told the kow-towing, mindless, narcissistic Rachel Maddow that being "gay" is not considered "halal" by the Muslims.
The self destructive lunacy of the gay community defies belief as they side with Islam which will have them beheaded under Sharia.
