The notoriously anti-zionist and intellectually dishonest Jeffrey Goldberg has joined the herd of Geller bashers on the Butterball halal story. Goldberg mimics the lock-step dissimulators and lies about the real issue, the halal labeling issue, behind the Butterball boycott.
Pamela Geller Comes Out Against Kosher Laws
Recently, my arch-nemesis Pamela Geller, who gives the fight against Islamist terrorism a bad name, denounced the good people who bring us Butterball turkeys for allowing their birds to be slaughtered according to Muslim custom. These halal birds, she said, are tortured in the name of Islam
[...]
Geller was actually making an indirect critique of kashrut. If Geller is suggesting that the kosher laws are inhumane (I know people who might beileve this is so) then she should come out and say it. If she wants to attack Judaism, then she should just do so in a direct manner.
Yes, he actually wrote that. This is consistent with Goldberg's cringeworthy history of attacks on proud zionists. He calls me his "arch-nemesis" ..... lml. Methinks he thinks too much about this. I don't consider him at all.
I followed up with a tweet (two, actually). The spineless tool didn't respond; instead, he went post-al with one of my tweets.
Geller's Butterball Jihad Continues
Here, for those of you who care, is Pamela Geller's priceless response to my post that gently suggested that, in addition to being a racist, she's also not very bright:
- @Goldberg3000 Poor Chomsky fetishist - Halal meat should be labeled halal. What don't you get about that, quisling? Mark #Butterball Halal
I've been called many things, but "Chomsky fetishist" is not one of them. As for "quisling," I'm not even Norwegian! "Chomsky fetishist" definitely goes on the list of excellent slurs. I also have to say I like the term "butterball jihad." It makes "jihad" sound somehow less threatening.
"As for 'quisling,' I'm not even Norwegian!" Is he seriously that stupid? Does he really not know what the word means? Or is he just making an incredibly unfunny joke? Either way, saying something like that while calling me stupid is self-defeating, to say the least.
This is what writes for the Atlantic and passes for the "new intellectual." This is what passes for "debate" among these midgets.
The concern is with halal meat entering the marketplace without having to be labeled as such. This is an issue for many groups, including those Christians who believe that the Christian Bible prohibits the consumption of meat sacrificed to idols; many Christians would view halal meat as meeting that definition since in halal slaughter, an imam offers the animal up as a sacrifice to Allah. Others object to halal because of concern about the jihad links of some organizations that provide halal certification, such as the Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). There are also those who object to both halal and kosher slaughter from an animal welfare perspective, because of the lack of stunning. While all religious parties have the right to have meat and poultry slaughtered in a way that meets their needs, it is important that it be labeled as such so that those who do not wish to consume it don't do so by mistake. Labeling can be misleading and untruthful by what it doesn’t say, if key facts are omitted.
Just as those who purchase meat and poultry products labeled halal should have a reasonable expectation that the products were actually produced in that manner, those who object to halal meat should also have a reasonable assurance that products NOT labeled halal were NOT slaughtered in such a manner. Current law does not require that segregation to occur, but by publishing a list of those establishments with existing waivers, those of us who are motivated consumers can then make educated buying choices. As halal slaughter increases in the US, the likelihood of unknowingly buying meat slaughtered under such a system also increases.
Though the imam who pronounces the blessing to make the meat halal usually comes in only for a limited time to slaughter a certain numbers of animals on a portion of a shift, it is not always clear that the halal product was fully segregated from the rest of the meat, as it should be. I am not aware of any US chicken slaughter establishment that has in place a fulltime imam for halal, and the vast majority of the slaughter plants do no halal slaughter at all. This is why there have been numerous illegal Muslim slaughterhouses shut down in recent years, as they have been operating without license or government inspection. The only way they have been found is by the few times that USDA inspectors have gone through product in commerce at the retail establishment and noticed the fake marks of inspection. I suspect that there are many more illegal slaughter facilities in the US being run by Muslims.
By sorting through the limited number of lists of establishments exporting to countries that require halal slaughter, we are able to identify some establishments. Almost all of the large beef plants in the country perform halal slaughter, based on export documents.
From the looks of it, most of the beef sold in the US comes out of a plant that practices some halal slaughter. The chicken picture is less clear so far, though the following processors are known: Allen’s Family Foods-Seaford plant; Perdue Farms-Dillon, SC plant; Amick Farms-Hurlock, MD & Saluda, SC plants, Gerber Poultry-Ohio plant, Harrison Poultry-Bethlehem, GA plant.
This is the crux of the issue: halal meat should be labeled as such. And it matters a great deal to a great many Americans. So while Jeff Goldberg and the rest of the lilliputian army of lemmings smear, insult and dissemble to obfuscate the issue, you can rest assured that Goldberg would be the first horse's ass in line plaintivly sobbing and wailing if it were the dietary rights of Muslims that were being violated.
