1 Introduction Religious slaughter and in particular the aspect related to stunning or not stunning before slaughter is currently a debated issue in many European countries (Bergaud-Blacker: 2007). These issues are relevant for consumers of halal (Muslims) or kosher (Jews) in Europe today, but also for non-consumers of the same products. Concerns about religious freedom, human rights and/ or consumer rights, on the one hand, and concerns about animal welfare and animal rights, on the other, are the main dimensions of the current public debate all over Europe. Still the debate varies in different contexts and in time and intensity. Here we will give an overview of the media debate related to religious slaughter in Norway. Besides analysing the media debate on religious slaughter through various verbal statements, we make a short analysis of how the debate is presented and illustrated through the media’s use of images. First we will give a brief overview of the Norwegian context.
1.1 The Norwegian context There are 381 000 immigrants and 79 000 Norwegian-born persons with immigrant parents living in Norway. Together these two groups represent 9.7 per cent of Norway's population. Data from Statistics Norway indicate that there are 72.000 Muslims living in Norway, of which most are living in the capital city Oslo. Pakistanis were prominent in the first wave of immigration in the 1970s and still represent the largest Muslim community in Norway. In recent years there has been a growth of immigrants of Somali origin. According to Vogt, about 500 ethnic Norwegians have converted to Islam. The first Mosque was opened in Oslo in 1974 by the Islamic Cultural Centre. The Muslim community has a manifold of organisations, partially reflecting the ethnic background and their specific faith (Vogt: 2000). The Islamic Council (Muslimsk Råd) serves as an umbrella organisation and is one of the most prominent voices of the Muslim community in Norway. Today there are about 2000 Jews in Norway. Most of the Norwegian Jews are living in Oslo. The Jewish Community (Det Mosaiske Trossamfund) was established in Norway in 1892 and is the largest and most crucial Jewish community in Norway. According to Norwegian law all animals have to be stunned before slaughter (Animal act § 9, 1974 - and previous, and in the new Animal act 2009 § 12). The Jewish community is not allowed any exception from the rule of pre-stunning. This implies that orthodox Jews in Norway depend on imports of kosher food. 1 At the moment the Norwegian Muslim community have reached an agreement regarding pre-stunning of animals, which means that they have access to halal slaughtered meat produced in Norway. 2 With few exceptions, the media debate on religious slaughter has not been loud in Norway. The debate is characterised by some “peaks” followed by periods in which religious slaughter has not been a major issue.
1 The Council for Animal Ethics, appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture, specified in 1995 that although exceptions to the pre-stunning norm are not permitted, “people or groups believing that this slaughter method does not satisfy their religious obligation, are allowed to import meat from animals that are slaughtered in other countries”. 2
For more details on issues related to imports of kosher and the way halal slaughtering is practised in Norway see the sub deliverable 4.2 ‘The Norwegian Market for Halal and Schechita meat products’).
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