Atlas Shrugs

AFDI Victory! Butterball Backpedals on Bismillah Brouhaha: "Butterball products are not certified halal"

Last year at this time, I published an article to The American Thinker, Happy Halal Thanksgiving, exposing the meat industry's dirty little secret -- its established practice of not separating halal meat from non-halal meat, and not labeling halal meat as such. And back in October 2010, I reported more little-noted but explosive new revelations: that much of the meat in Europe and the United States is being processed as halal without the knowledge of the non-Muslim consumers who buy it.

Further, that Butterball's whole turkeys were all certified halal. Many Atlas readers received this email from Butterball (emphasis mine):

November 14, 2011 

Thanks for contacting Butterball. Our whole turkeys are certified halal. However, if you would like to know about any other Butterball products, please email us back as to which products you are interested in using and we can get that information for you. 

Again, thanks for your interest in Butterball. We hope you find this information helpful.

Sincerely,
Wendy Howze
Consumer Response Representative

Ref: Y453882

This caused an enormous uproar. Having the "Bismillah allahu akbar" -- in the name of Allah the greatest (the same prayer made when beheading infidels, kufar and apostates) -- recited over the meat renders it inedible to many religious people. They cannot eat it on religious grounds. Many Christians, Hindus or Sikhs and Jews find it offensive to eat meat slaughtered according to Islamic ritual (although observant Jews are less likely to be exposed to such meat, because they eat kosher).

And because the Butterball bismillah went viral, the left went ballistic. Clean Up, Meat Aisle: Talking Heads Exploding over Halal Butterballs (November 24, 2011) The left and Islamic supremacists scoffed at the controversy, mocking it as being about "jihad turkeys" or "sharia turkeys." It was always about truth in labeling, which they would support in other contexts. And now Butterball's reversal shows that the concern was real. Kudos to all the lovers of freedom who made Butterball feel the heat.

It hurt their business. And the boycott didnt help either. 

We are pursuing legislation to make sure all halal meat is labeled halal so that customers know exactly what it is they are buying.

But we have an early victory in our halal thanksgiving story. Butterball has changed policy and messaging. Here is the email going out to Butterball customers this year. Atlas reader Joe S forwarded me this email:

November 19, 2012
Thank you for your interest in Butterball products.

At Butterball, we pride ourselves on our ability to provide consumers around the world with a variety of wholesome and nutritious products. At this time, Butterball branded products are not certified halal. This applies to both domestic and international Butterball products. We remain dedicated to feeding a diverse, growing global population while adhering to all USDA guidelines.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Sincerely,

Butterball Consumer Affairs Department

Fantastic! Shout out to Butterball. Hollaaaaaaaaa!

Want to read more on the Butterball brouhaha? Butterball's Cover-Up -- Or Is That A Burqa? - Atlas Shrugs

We won't eat halal meat, say MPs and peers: Reject Islamic Supremacist Demands to serve it at Westminster

The Palace of Westminster has rejected demands to serve halal meat: "We won't eat halal meat, say MPs and peers who reject demands to serve it at Westminster."

MPs don't want to eat halal (and understandably so), but Americans are forced to -- unwittingly, of course, but forced to nonetheless, because halal meat does not have to be labeled halal if it is not being sold as halal. Pointing out this glaring violation of consumer (and non-Muslims') rights out draws reams of scorn and derision from the Islamic supremacists and their leftist tools and puppets. Back in November the jihad-aligned media was rabid when I exposed halal turkeys being sold without being marked halal.

Most non-Muslims would reject eating halal if they knew the bismalla allahu akbar was said over the meat (much the way allahu akbar is wailed when infidels are being slaughtered as well).

In halal slaughter, each and every animal is offered in prayer as a sacrifice to Allah. Some imams are so lame as to play a tape recording of the prayer on the kill line as they sleep in the office. But each animal is a sacrifice to an idol. So there is no question in halal slaughter that non-muslims who find this problematic would consider it food sacrificed to idols. Again the bottom line is that without the labeling, there is no way to know for sure whether the meat you are buying is halal or not.

The meat is only marked halal or kosher if it is being marketed as such, but the rest of the product slaughtered in that way is not being labeled. For example:

An Egyptian customer wants 2000 lbs halal chicken leg quarters. To meet that order, an entire shift of 100,000 chickens are slaughtered halal. 2000 lbs of leg quarters from that shift are labeled halal and sent to that Egyptian customer. The remaining 498,000 lbs of halal slaughtered chicken are sent to their regular customers unlabeled as having been slaughtered halal. The buyers of the other 498,000 lbs have absolutely no idea that it was slaughtered halal, as it is not required to be labeled as such, since it isn't being sold as such. What we are asking for is that the identity of ALL of the product slaughtered halal be maintained and labeled as such. Since the halal portion of the process is the kill step, the entire carcass becomes halal. Not labeling product that was slaughtered halal as such is "false and misleading labeling." This is one of SIOA's initiatives in the first quarter of 2012: to make sure that halal meat is labeled halal. I will be updating shortly on our progress. Help us fight -- go here.

I discuss this extensively in my book, Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.

We won't eat halal meat, say MPs and peers who reject demands to serve it at Westminster
Mail on Sunday 

The Palace of Westminster has rejected demands to serve halal meat in its restaurants.

Muslim MPs and peers have been told they cannot have meat slaughtered in line with Islamic tradition because the method – slitting an animal’s throat without first stunning it – is offensive to many of their non-Muslim colleagues.

The stance has infuriated some parliamentarians who have eaten meat in the Palace’s 23 restaurants and cafes, having been assured that it was halal.

Lord Ahmed of Rotherham said: ‘I did feel misled. I think a halal option should be made available.’

In 2010, the Mail on Sunday revealed schools, hospitals and restaurants were serving halal meat to unwitting customers.

Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Somerfield and the Co-op all said they stocked meat slaughtered according to Islamic tradition without letting customers know.

Fast-food chains including Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, KFC, ­Nando’s and Subway are also using halal meat without ­telling customers, it was revealed.

 

More...

• Tainted New Year Honours: Knighthood for Tory donor who made millions from credit crunch and CBE for jailed tycoon
• Four dead as ANOTHER major blast rocks Nigeria... as tensions between Christians and Muslims continue to rise

Members of the Church of England have complained that the spread of halal meat was 'effectively spreading Sharia law' across Britain.

The Palace of Westminster has rejected demands to serve halal meat in its restaurants

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...

 

Jeffrey Goldberg Goes Post-al on Halal

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.

Clean Up, Meat Aisle: Talking Heads Exploding over Halal Butterballs

Heads a poppin'

11-23-11 5 Fear The Turkey! -- Countdown with Keith Olbermann
(I think this is on Al Gore's failed channel)

David Shuster (in above video) repeatedly tweeted:

Hey @atlasshrugs [Pamela Gellar] your criticism of Butterball turkey for conforming to Islamic law gets my response on countdown.
3 hours ago

To which I responded:

@DavidShuster Assclown ignores the fact that ALL BB turkeys are certified halal (w/Islamic prayer) & not labeled. When do u get funny?

Heads are exploding on the left. My American Thinker article exposing Butterball turkeys have the pathetic shills for sharia bouncing off the wall. All Butterball whole turkeys are certified halal. They are not labeled as such. That is a big deal. Millions of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Zoroastrians, wiccans, pagans, animists might not want to buy halal or wish to eat halal meat.

Just as calories and nutritional values must be labeled on every food product -- halal certification should be prominently labeled on all meat that is prepared according to Islamic religious ritual. We know every unit of heat energy, and grams of fat, protein, carbos, etc. -- but not halal? Despite the fact that it violates the teachings of non-Muslims to eat it?

Respect only for Islam? Why? It's not a matter of how the bird is killed. The fact that all their turkeys are halal and not labeled as such is what is so horribly wrong. The left doesn't get this?

The left is just hog wild over this story. Hundreds of tweets and reams of ink. Raging against the Geller machine LML. Go here and "Like" the Boycott Butterball page at Facebook.

New York Magazine writes: Halal Turkeys Are Tainting Thanksgiving, Says Pamela Geller

The Internet's most visible hater of Islam, Pamela Geller, is warning all Americans this Thanksgiving about a dastardly new force that's threatening the freedom of our holiday dinner tables: Butterball turkeys. According to Geller, in a column from The American
Thinker, the turkey brand is forcing sharia law onto all of us by offering whole turkeys that are "certified halal." Geller is aghast: "In a little-known strike against freedom, yet again, we are being forced into consuming meat slaughtered by means of a torturous method: Islamic slaughter." Yet again!

Geller has the background, in her typically measured tone:

Halal slaughter involves cutting the trachea, the esophagus, and the jugular vein, and letting the blood drain out while saying "Bismillah allahu akbar" — in the name of Allah the greatest. Many people refuse to eat it on religious grounds. Many Christians, Hindus or Sikhs and Jews find it offensive to eat meat slaughtered according to Islamic ritual (although observant Jews are less likely to be exposed to such meat, because they eat kosher).

While Geller attempts to rally the PETA folks to her side by calling the practice crueler than normal, another more neutral take contends that halal slaughter "differs from turkeys which are slaughtered in traditional turkey farms or plants in the United States, where turkeys are kept in cramped conditions and slaughtered in a sort of assembly line by machinery which many find to be inhumane."

Geller will not be convinced otherwise: "It's Islamic supremacism on the march, yet again," she promises. (Yet again!!) "So this Thanksgiving, fight for your freedom." Her "Boycott Butterball Turkey" group on Facebook currently boasts 1,078 "likes," and comments like, "Liberal Fascists are indoctrinated to hate whites, Jews, America, Americans, Free Markets, Christians, history, economics, numbers, and facts." Liberal fascists, however, love Butterball.

Comedy Central -- yes, Comedy Central: Are You Eating a Muslim Turkey This Thanksgiving?

Conservative blogger Pamela Geller — writing for American Thinker — just unleashed a shocking torrent of Terror across our collective holiday weekend.

You probably thought that you were going to enjoy a nice Christian Thanksgiving with your nice Christian family and your Christian friends in your Christian dining room tomorrow. But then… Surprise, Muslism!

A citizen activist and reader of my website AtlasShrugs.com wrote to Butterball, one of the most popular producers of Thanksgiving turkeys in the United States, asking them if their turkeys were halal. Wendy Howze, a Butterball Consumer Response Representative, responded: "Our whole turkeys are certified halal."…

Across this great country, on Thanksgiving tables nationwide, infidel Americans are unwittingly going to be serving halal turkeys to their families this Thursday. Turkeys that are halal certified — who wants that, especially on a day on which we are giving thanks to G-d for our freedom? I wouldn't knowingly buy a halal turkey — would you? Halal turkey, slaughtered according to the rules of Islamic law, is just the opposite of what Thanksgiving represents: freedom and inclusiveness, neither of which are allowed for under that same Islamic law.

Oh no! I don't want invisible Musliminess all over my Thanksgiving bird! Get it it off! Get it off!

I don't know about you, but went out shopping this past weekend with three very specific prerequisites for my turkey: 1) That it be heterosexual, 2) that it had signed a pledge in opposition to all tax increases prior to its slaughtering, and 3) that it had been brought up in a good God-fearing Lutheran family.

Houston Chronicle here: Oh the irony: Pamela Geller and the stealth halal turkeys 

Pamela Geller, anti-Muslim blogger extraordinaire, sounded the alarm today over the latest “Islamization of America” outrage.  She discovered that Butterball whole turkeys are certified halal, and in this she sees the latest example of “stealth” infiltration of Islam into all things American (read: non-Muslim). This Thanksgiving, she frets, the jihad starts with what’s on your table.

She called on good Americans (read: non-Muslims) everywhere to take a stand against the halal turkeys (which may, after all, be stuffed with sharia instead of gizzards.

Is Your Thanksgiving Turkey an Islamofascist? Gawker -- ‎Nov 21, 2011‎

Geller has learned that leading turkey-murderer Butterball slaughters all of its turkeys halal-style: Across this great country, on Thanksgiving tables nationwide, infidel Americans are unwittingly going to be serving halal turkeys to their families ...

Pamela Geller: Beware "Stealth Halal" Turkeys This Thanksgiving Mother Jones

Do you need to be afraid of halal 'terror turkeys' this Thanksgiving? Metro NY

Daily Kos: Islamophobia Alert: Butterball turkeys "pro-Islam, Anti ...

This Thanksgiving, Beware The Sharia Turkey | TPMMuckraker

There's much more, but you get the picture.

Even that schmuck John Podhoretz of Commentary tweeted:

jpodhoretz John Podhoretz
I'd tell Pamela Geller to put a sock in it, but the sock might be halal. t.co/lUp7X8zu
9 hours ago

The Muslim Brotherhood groups here in America don't have to do anything. These quislings are doing all the work for them. Sheesh.

Here are just a few tweets:

"@Atlasshrugs: Check this video out -- Pamela Geller discusses halal turkeys @Atlasshrugs is such an ignorant narrow minded btch

Is Pamela Geller seriously attacking "halal" Butterball turkeys?

Noted insane nitwit Pamela Geller warns against 'Stealth Muslim Thanksgiving Turkeys' http://t.co/LmVSQKHk

FreakTweet FreakTweet
Pamela Geller explains that halal turkeys are tainting Thanksgiving: Pamela Geller explains that halal turkeys a... bit.ly/rAdOiQ
1 hour ago

rpachter Richard Pachter
More crazy stuff: Halal Turkeys Are Tainting Thanksgiving, Says Pamela Geller shar.es/ovC8V
2 hours ago

hotincleveland Truly S.
Pamela Geller: fighting for the right to abuse and sicken turkeys, then slaughter them cruelly before eating them. That's the American way.
2 hours ago

CAIRNational CAIR National
Halal Turkeys Are Tainting Thanksgiving, Says Pamela Geller... fb.me/CcnZqMm5
10 hours ago

pareene Alex Pareene
Pamela Geller endorses secret shariah turkey Herman Cain
14 hours ago

cairchicago CAIR-Chicago
MotherJones: Pamela Geller: Beware “Stealth Halal” Turkeys This Thanksgiving islamophobiatoday.com/2011/11/22/mot…
22 Nov

CAIRNational CAIR National
Oh the Irony! Pamela Geller and the Stealth Halal Turkeys... fb.me/1sV5XJDDk
22 Nov

CAIRNational CAIR National
Pamela Geller: Beware "Stealth Halal" Turkeys This Thanksgiving... fb.me/1i6x6hFtL
21 Nov

Ali_Gharib Ali Gharib
Pamela Geller: Beware "Stealth Halal" Turkeys This Thanksgiving bit.ly/rEn6PG by @adamserwer
21 Nov

caradox Cara Lynch
Use extra tinfoil! RT @MotherJones: Pamela Geller: Beware "Stealth Halal" Turkeys This Thanksgiving mojo.ly/uBAv59

Sid Blalock wrote:

Ms Geller... your a ridiculous and stupid woman... it’s people like you that make the Muslims hate us so... you sicken me to my very core! Happy Thanksgiving to you, and may you choke on your turkey!!

UPDATE: Leftist/Islamic twitterverse rabid- thou protests too much, no?

Lizardoid Charles Johnson

Hateblogger @PamelaGeller doubles down on monumentally stupid 'Butterball Jihad' post lgf.bz/uQcw5V #LGF

10 minutes ago

laloalcaraz Lalo Alcaraz

@pamelageller wants to stop animal cruelty because she finally realized she is one RT @moronwatch: Hateful mor… (cont) deck.ly/~sNKNu

10 minutes ago

moronwatch MoronWatch

Hateful moron and mentor to Norwegian terrorists @pamelageller loses the plot over halal turkey ow.ly/7Ei4N via @subverzo

12 minutes ago

 

GeoffKoski Geoff Koski

From @pamelageller - The most riduclous piece of drivel ever written. And from ironically named site "American Thinker" americanthinker.com/2011/11/happy_…

22 hours ago

Ronc99 Ron Cordry

Neocon @pamelageller thinks Thanksgiving's turkeys are Islamic terrorists, instead of, #capitalism she worships: bit.ly/uzTxmi. #P2

23 Nov

Cerebrotoxin Corbet X. Noire

Pamela Geller: Insane, Nazi Bitch. DAILY KOS #idiot #sharia #islam #thanksgiving

4 minutes ago

Tarkloon Randall Gross

Pamela Geller, Laughing Stock: 'Zorastratrians' Don't Want Jihad Turkeys! lgf.bz/uQcw5V #LGF #p2 #tlot #tcot

4 minutes ago

 UPDATE: Dead on balls comment:

Guy Average said:

When a food item is certified Kosher, it is clearly marked as such. I don't know if Muslims would shun Kosher food or not (my guess is that they would do so on principle if for no other reason), but at least they would be able to know if something was Kosher before they purchased it. Why should those of us who don't want to consume food that is offered to the god of a satanic cult like Islam not be able to make that choice by simply looking at the label?

Bingo!

Crombouke reminds us, Christians are forbidden to eat any food that has been sacrificed to idols.

UPDATE: Logan is fighting the good fight.

UPDATE: 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.

UK: HALAL MEAT ONLY, Parents REVOLT

This is not the exception, but the rule and the people are being betrayed by their own elected officials.

Parents protest at school's 'Halal-only' lunch Daily Mail 

Furious parents staged protests outside a school over its decision to serve up only halal meat at lunchtimes.

Staff were forced to call the police after one father strode into the school in North London to challenge the new meals policy.

Kingsgate Primary in West Hampstead is among growing numbers of schools with high Muslim populations to use halal-only meat in cooking.

But the menus, which will feature only meat that has been slaughtered in the halal way with a single cut to the throat, have not always been well received.

At Kingsgate, parents carrying placards congregated at the school gates to demand a reversal of the policy, claiming their children would be denied a choice.

But the protests triggered claims of racism from parents of Muslim children, who make up three quarters of the school population.

Yesterday headmistress Liz Hayward was refusing to back down, insisting that a majority of parents had backed the move to halal-only menus in a comprehensive survey of families.

"We can't force our culture on someone else because that's not right so we shouldn't have someone else's culture forced on us.

"The little culture that we have is being lost. I don't know any other country that would do the same."