Another case of the PC brigade making decisions for the minority that affect the majority . Last week on TV we experienced unending programmes about the treatment of animals and their slaughter etc , the production of Halal meat is a barbaric process where the animal is not stunned as the "M" people believe the animal should be aware of its death. The real issue here is pandering to a minority by subterfuge. I for one would not want my child fed meat produced through such a barbaric practice , its islamification by the back door

Andy, your perfectly reasonable position will now be slammed as that of a racist and a bogit.

Totally agree with Andy on this one. Why should the minority view be taken as the correct one? I make my childs packed lunch but if I didn't I would be furious that the meat given in a school dinner was halal meat - if I want to make that choice then that is fine, but what is not fine is having a school making that decision just for the sake of inclusion.

If a Muslim child goes to the school surely it is the job of the parent to provide their dietry needs, just as it is the choice of the parent to send them to school that is not a Muslim run school.

I agree with Andy too.

Animals for Halal meat are slaughtered in the most barbaric manner, and I would prefer not to eat meat where the animal has suffered in this manner!

Why does religion have to have a place in schools?

The school should just serve meat provided by a local farmer, slaughtered in the regular way.

inclusivity my ****, what's this headmistress going to do next ask the kids to adopt islamic dress codes?

This woman needs to be told in no uncertain terms that she must provide meals that meet the children's and parent's requirements and to do otherwise is discrimination.

its wrong

why pander to the Muslims all the time

what about the rest of us - Hindus Budists christians and athiests - why should one cultures traditions be enforced on the rest?

and why when that meat is prepared in such a ruthless and inhuman way?

ROSE HILL SORT IT OUT! YOUR NOT BEING PC - YOUR BEING IDIOTS

"she must provide meals that meet the children's and parent's requirements and to do otherwise is discrimination"

So what you're saying is, she must provide HALAL meals that meet the MUSLIM requirements and NON-HALAL meals that meet the NON-MUSLIM requirements, and to do otherwise is discrimination - right?

Exactly!!

Fighting spirit remember your ancestors don't give up this is a right & just fight against this barbaric practice, keep at them loosing is not an option. Our children's future depend on us all to protect our ways against this alien cultural invasion.

I've never seen the point of school meals.

The ones at my school were invariably horrible.

Why not just scrap them all, and the children can bring sandwiches (Or turkey twizzlers or whatever they eat these days).

Then all religions can live in harmony, and everyone will be happy, apart from the dinner ladies, but I'm sure they'd be willing to give up their jobs for the greater good.

i have a child in reception class at rosehill primary school, i believe that you are all missing the point about halal meat being served. the point is that the parents were not informed of mra mortimers intentions, therefore did not have the choice. this is not about the actual meat in any way. i think its a bit strong to force a resignment from her, i feel a public apology would surffice. i do also feel that we ahve been picked on as one of the poorer eatates in oxford. i cannot see any of this ever occuring in either a catholic or private school.jemma

jemma webb wrote:
i have a child in reception class at rosehill primary school, i believe that you are all missing the point about halal meat being served. the point is that the parents were not informed of mra mortimers intentions, therefore did not have the choice. this is not about the actual meat in any way. i think its a bit strong to force a resignment from her, i feel a public apology would surffice. i do also feel that we ahve been picked on as one of the poorer eatates in oxford. i cannot see any of this ever occuring in either a catholic or private school.jemma

So are you saying before this, parents knew exactly which farm/source their meat came from?

I very much doubt this...

Well of course - because non-halal meat comes from animals that had a great old life, didn't it? What utter rank hypocricy and ignorance. Unless it's free-range, organic meat the likelihood is that it came from a factory farm and was slaughtered in a huge industrial abbatoir where the animals lived and died in pitiful and barbaric conditions.

This just sounds like an opportunity for certain people to raise a few more anti-muslim hackles.

jemma webb wrote:
i have a child in reception class at rosehill primary school, i believe that you are all missing the point about halal meat being served. the point is that the parents were not informed of mra mortimers intentions, therefore did not have the choice. this is not about the actual meat in any way. i think its a bit strong to force a resignment from her, i feel a public apology would surffice. i do also feel that we ahve been picked on as one of the poorer eatates in oxford. i cannot see any of this ever occuring in either a catholic or private school.jemma

Actually, it IS about the nature of Halal AND about the imposition of some other religious practice on the non-muslim children at your school.

Let me inform you, in case you are not aware, of two points :

1. Halal slaughter involved the cutting of a live animal's jugular and letting it bleed to death without stunning. This is a barbaric practice and is condemned by the uk government's own animal welfare advisory board.

2. When having their throat cut, the Shahada is read over the animals - this states that

'La ilaha illa Allah wa-Muhammad rasul Allah.

( There is no god but God and Muhammad is the prophet of God. ) '

Are you happy, to have a muslim prayer said over your food, and accept as a Christian that Mohammed is the prophet of God ?

I wonder if you will be happy when your child comes home telling you that they have chating the Shahada before their meal instead of the ' For what we are about to receive .... ')

You are misguided and ill-informed - get yourself an education and wise up before your child is indoctrinated with islamic jibberish.

Dave wrote:
Well of course - because non-halal meat comes from animals that had a great old life, didn't it? What utter rank hypocricy and ignorance. Unless it's free-range, organic meat the likelihood is that it came from a factory farm and was slaughtered in a huge industrial abbatoir where the animals lived and died in pitiful and barbaric conditions. This just sounds like an opportunity for certain people to raise a few more anti-muslim hackles.

Most farming is barbaric.
Nature is not about 'fluffy bunnies'.
If you have ever seen a lioness chase and kill prey in Africa you will realise that by those standards an abattoir is relatively humane.
There are wider issues here however that just barbaric farming practices.

Pre-stunning in the right environment is relatively humane form of killing - the fact that it is not done well in vile conditions in abattoirs is an animal welfare issue - no need to make it worse by live slaughter halal-style.

My objection to all this is that 'inclusivity' is actually exclusive- it stands to reason that pork should not be served lest it offend Jews and Muslims; no beef due to the Hindus; no meat on Friday for the Catholics- and all for utterly irrational reasons.

We could of course go the other way and start serving bushmeat (monkey) as it's a delicacy in some African countries; cats and dogs for the Koreans, a roast Guinea pig for the Peruvians and perhaps a sprinkling of powderd rhino horn would see greater effort in PE...

It was wrong for the headmistress to make this decision without a consultation with the parents or children first, but the wider issue of Halal being a barbaric method of slaughter should be broached carefully - if anyone has been watching the run of programmes on Channel 4 detailing the cruelty suffered by battery poultry and the poor quality meat that results from this appalling practise, we should be looking at not only what cruelty is permitted in the name of God, but in the name of cheap produce. Those of us who are not Jewish or Muslim should not be so quick to condemn their practises as inhumane if we are perfectly happy to eat a £3 chicken that has surely suffered a horrific life. Halal/kosher methods are cruel, battery cages are cruel - but when did you last see parents complaining about, or even questioning, the quality/humane conditions of the chicken served to thier children?

Let's turn this around for a minute and consider what would happen if muslim children were fed pork without their knowledge let alone non halal meat? What about feeding beef to the Hindu children?

I can tell you now the parents would be up in arms and the headmistress without a job and lucky to still have her head on her shoulders.

Siobhan wrote:
It was wrong for the headmistress to make this decision without a consultation with the parents or children first, but the wider issue of Halal being a barbaric method of slaughter should be broached carefully - if anyone has been watching the run of programmes on Channel 4 detailing the cruelty suffered by battery poultry and the poor quality meat that results from this appalling practise, we should be looking at not only what cruelty is permitted in the name of God, but in the name of cheap produce. Those of us who are not Jewish or Muslim should not be so quick to condemn their practises as inhumane if we are perfectly happy to eat a £3 chicken that has surely suffered a horrific life. Halal/kosher methods are cruel, battery cages are cruel - but when did you last see parents complaining about, or even questioning, the quality/humane conditions of the chicken served to thier children?

We don't have to broach anything carefully. Animal cruelty justified because of profit is one thing, animal cruelty justified because of a relegious ideology is another.

I object to this woman feeding kids based on her ideology.

John wrote:

Siobhan wrote:
It was wrong for the headmistress to make this decision without a consultation with the parents or children first, but the wider issue of Halal being a barbaric method of slaughter should be broached carefully - if anyone has been watching the run of programmes on Channel 4 detailing the cruelty suffered by battery poultry and the poor quality meat that results from this appalling practise, we should be looking at not only what cruelty is permitted in the name of God, but in the name of cheap produce. Those of us who are not Jewish or Muslim should not be so quick to condemn their practises as inhumane if we are perfectly happy to eat a £3 chicken that has surely suffered a horrific life. Halal/kosher methods are cruel, battery cages are cruel - but when did you last see parents complaining about, or even questioning, the quality/humane conditions of the chicken served to thier children?

We don't have to broach anything carefully. Animal cruelty justified because of profit is one thing, animal cruelty justified because of a relegious ideology is another.

I object to this woman feeding kids based on her ideology.

You'll have to make this distinction clearer as it fails to leap off the page to me - it seems wrong, in my view, to justify animal cruelty either for profit or religious motivation. If you are interested in preventing animal cruelty, the source of this cruelty shouldn't matter and ought to be treated with exactly the same logic.
And why don't we have to broach anything carefully? Isn't that the source of this whole ridiculous story, that one headmistress failed to be careful in her decision making/thought processes and cut out the rights of parents to decide what their children eat?

I'm not justifying anything, this woman made a stupid and irresponsible decision and should be sacked.

well done oxford mail,you people helped to make a fuss out of nothing
how about a petition from mothers and pupils who didn't give toss about the fuss
one hundred ten percent racist move
oxford mail should be reported for incitement
......o by the way if anyone the muslim faith had done this, he/she would be in court by now for terrorists acts
grow up and get a life

YOU ARE SO RIGHT MR WILSON. NO I HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT WAS BEING FED TO THE STUDENTS IN THEIR SCHOOL MEALS....UNTIL NOW,MY CHILD FORTUNATLY TAKES A PACKED LUNCH.I HAVE FULL KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT WE ARE LED TO BELIEVE ON ISLAMIC BELIEFS(HALAL). BUT ONCE AGAIN THE ACTUAL ISSUE IS BEING MISSED, THIS IS ABOUT THE PARENTS AND HAVING THE RIGHT OF CHOICE FOR THEIR CHILDREN. MY GREAT GRANDFATHER FOUGHT FOR THE RIGHT OF CHOICE,WHERES IT GONE?

hunt wrote:
well done oxford mail,you people helped to make a fuss out of nothing how about a petition from mothers and pupils who didn\'t give toss about the fuss one hundred ten percent racist move oxford mail should be reported for incitement ......o by the way if anyone the muslim faith had done this, he/she would be in court by now for terrorists acts grow up and get a life

I think it is YOU who needs to grow up.

You are obviously a muslim with the attitudes that you possess.

Amazing isn't it how anyone that protests against the imposition ofIslamic practices a 'racist' .

Which mosque do you attend ?

You are a moron - who do you think you are fooling Mohammed ?

Non-muslims ahve RIGHTS, much as you would like to take them away my muslim 'friend'.