A prison governor has apologised to Muslim inmates after they were served non-halal burgers.
Hmmm, so far, so compo-tastic. So, was this lamb, beef or chicken that simply had no ‘halal’ sticker? Because anyone can make a mistake.
Errr, not quite:
A number of Muslim inmates at HMP Ford, an open prison in West Sussex, are claiming they were served pork burgers by prison staff on Saturday evening.Pork!?!
So, not exactly a mistake anyone could have made, then? But it gets worse…
A prison service spokesman told the BBC: "On Saturday a problem in the kitchens resulted in Muslim prisoners being mistakenly served non-halal food."*boggle*
It is still not clear exactly what meat was used.
14 comments:
Who GIVES a shit?
They should ALL be force fed pork, and given two pig blood showers per day. Even when they are NOT in prison.
If they don't like it, they can fuck off back to their rat infested hovels, or piss filled tents in Nohamhead land.
Damd SCUM.
Follow ups.
1) When buying the catering equivalent of dog-food, there's little in the way of provenance. So the gruelmeisters in the kitchen probably just opened a box or 12 of frozen 'food' from the deep freeze.
2) The muslims probably suspect that the meat contained pork, but probably couldn't be sure. IMO they already knew that the food that they are routinely served cannot be guaranteed halal. But they always do the breast-beating/clothes rending bit so that in future all of their meals will be sourced from the nearest pakistani/indian takeaway.
3) The whole 'special requirements' thing, especially in prison is nothing more than passive aggression. By acknowledging spurious 'human rights' the staff relinquish their authority. To see this in extremis, look at the shenanigans that the Korean 'prisoners' got away with in NATO POW camps in 1951-3. The prisoner leaders had the say over lesser inmates' lives and deaths. I'm not suggesting an ultrabrutal period of incarceration, merely a recognition that some 'rights' or preferences that a convict adheres to outside clink are unavailable inside. That, after all, is one of the penalties/purposes of incarceration.
My sympathy for the prisoners is altered by the fact that they are, y'know, in prison. Can't do the time, don't do the crime. Okay, some of them might well be in for victimless crimes but that's usually going to mean drugs, and somehow I doubt the average weed smoking pill popper arrested while tripping his tits off and getting personal visions of paradise qualifies as being particularly devout in the first place.
There's nothing quite like mystery meat.
I had always believed that the restriction was along the lines of "don't eat non-halal meat unless there's no other option" rather than "don't eat it, ever".
A quick look on wikipedia seems to confirm this: "According to the Quran, the only foods explicitly forbidden are meat from animals that die of themselves, blood, the meat of pigs, and animals dedicated to other than God, but a person is not guilty of sin in a situation where the lack of any alternative creates an undesired necessity to consume that which is otherwise unlawful. (Quran 2:173)"
and "Quran 2.173 [...] states: He hath only forbidden you dead meat, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that on which any other name hath been invoked besides that of Allah. But if one is forced by necessity, without wilful disobedience, nor transgressing due limits, then is he guiltless. For Allah is Oft-forgiving Most Merciful."
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_dietary_laws
So they'd be perfectly fine to eat pork if there were no other option. The question then becomes, why do we offer any other option?
Compare and contrast with the situation should one be imprisoned in the Muslim country in which I work. The prison authorities do not feed you. You rely on your family and friends to feed you.
I've tried and tried but I'm afraid I can't manage any tears.
My advice to these poor fellows would be just to eat the vegetables and potatoes.
Because halal is so unpleasant in animal welfare terms and the issues of human health that underpin the practice no longer apply, I don't think it's the business of a state institution to cater for the religiously finnicky.
Of course, as dear Terry tells us. NAMED meat is SO much more expensive.
Ask Dibbler.
An onion helps, Mick.
According to the Ayatollah Khomeini, there is another kind of meat the Moslem is not allowed to eat; namely, the meat of any animal he has had sex with.
Do you think this will present a great difficulty in the prison diet?
According to the Ayatollah Khomeini, there is another kind of meat the Moslem is not allowed to eat; namely, the meat of any animal he has had sex with.
Do you think this will present a great difficulty in the prison diet?
Aye canabalism between muslim inmates is verbotten.
The prison is working closely with the Muslim chaplain (and the Happy Shopper) on this matter.
If they don't like it they should not have gone there. Volunteers is what they are.
"But they always do the breast-beating/clothes rending bit so that in future all of their meals will be sourced from the nearest pakistani/indian takeaway."
Oh, I know. I await the compo claims for this one...
"I'm not suggesting an ultrabrutal period of incarceration, merely a recognition that some 'rights' or preferences that a convict adheres to outside clink are unavailable inside."
Agreed. But since we are apparantly on the verge of giving them the vote...
"My sympathy for the prisoners is altered by the fact that they are, y'know, in prison."
Yes, like Mick, I'm having difficulty shedding any tears here.
"So they'd be perfectly fine to eat pork if there were no other option. The question then becomes, why do we offer any other option?"
Because we're better than them?
Or just because we're too damn soft...
"It is still not clear exactly what meat was used."
Pretty much like my local kebab van then...and I'm pretty sure it's not run by Christian or a Jew!!
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