PerthNorg

I couldn’t agree with you more. If people stopped being hysterical for a moment and opened their pantry, they would notice that many common household food items and confectionery bars have a Halal stamp, just as many have a Parve stamp for Jewish consumers. They are inconspicuous, and you only see them if you are looking for them. It is no different to the warnings on food packages that the item may contain traces of nuts or egg etc. Why any attention is paid to the vapid, racist thoughts of Alan Jones is beyond me.

Well said, Usman and Lizzie.

What we should see and hear is consumer warnings attached to Alan Jones’ toxic rants that his broadcast commentry is primarily composed of a unique blend of pig-ignorance, xenophobia, racism, bullying, ugliness and irrelevance; eg “Consumers are advised that any consumption of this pay-for-comment ‘product’ dramatically increases the risk hardening of the hearteries and cancer of the mind”.

There’s similar outrage in Melbourne about a McDonald’s restaurant that is selling Halal meat - some christians have complained that they should be told the meat is Halal very clearly so that can choose whether to eat it or not. I say build a bridge and get over it!

Oh and please no jokes along the lines of, ‘there are more pressing things to worry about than whether the burgers are Halal or not’. Remember, it’s all 100 per cent export quality beef, etc, etc!

How do I say this…

Hmm, well - first up - I rarely find myself agreeing with Alan Jones - and I haven’t heard his latest rant so I can’t comment.

However, if reported correctly there is no question that this is ‘bowing to religious pressure’. If not religious pressure - then what pressure is it?

So you can agree with Jones on that point - but its the subtext that I think most people are disagreeing with - which is Anti-Islam. And I disagree too.

The difficulty with the ‘bowing’ however part is that if you do it once - where do you stop? Australia prides itself on being a secular society. Well if that is the case then let it be secular.

Otherwise, we must cater for everyone’s various religious beliefs. The thing is - if we do that - then where do we stop? Certainkly not at food labels. Its one of the arguments for being secular in the first place. What is dear to one is not dear to another.

In this case it is not that ‘religious sensibilities are being catered for’ its that ‘Islamic sensibilities are being catered for’ and that all the others are being overlooked.

I mean, who is looking after Catholic sensibilities to ensure that all medical products have labels indicating whether they were derived from emryonic stem cells?

And I can only think of that because I am Catholic. I wouldn’t have clue about what might be important to people of other denominations.

Now - a reaction to that request may be “well - the sensibilities that would be protected by getting those labels on medicine isn’t important enough” or “not enough Catholics really care about that” And there you have it - the secular judgment call overirding what is ‘dear’ to one set of religious sensibilities.

So by preferring one set of sensibilites you ignore others and I think that is the problem.

I think it has to be ‘one in all in’ - or nothing at all.

Then there’s always the other labels on foods that indicate it whether it is; “organic”, macrobiotic, biodynmaic, wholemeal, wholegrain, “unprocessed”, vegetarian, contains no meat or dairy products, GM-free, salt-free, glucose-fee, sugar-free, preservative-free, lactose-free, gluten-free, MSG-free, contains no artificial colours (paricularly red colouring which has proven ill-effects on potential hyperactive or ADHD kids) or flavours (many of which are known carcinogens and in some cases teratogenic), yeast-free, caffiene-free….. and then there’s those that certify that the food has been sourced directly from growers to ensure they are properly renumerated and those products guaranteed to have been produced without animal testing……

Are the inclusion of these notices on food “bowing to religious pressure” (meat /dairy products), or bowing to pressure from so-called “eco nuts”, bowing to pressure from “food faddists” or bowing to pressure from “ethicists” or is it that it is bowing to market pressure to provide *everyone* with INFORMATION about what they are buying, the inclusion of which enables them to make an informed CHOICE?

I think so, and have no problem with any of it.

Cookie 2. Thanks for telling us about the outraged Christians trying to avoid Halal meat (from animals killed according to Islamic principles). I had to laugh at the thought of them worrying that they - or horror of horrors, their kids might become a bit, somehow Islamic after having unwittingly consumed some. Keep a close eye on them for tell-tale signs eg if you notice that they tend to kneel on the carpet more than they used to, or have taken to wearing a beach towel on their heads after a shower or at the beach. We have to be prepared to defend our culture from this insidious creeping influence - and doping our food is just the sort of thing they’d do to POLLUTE OUR PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS! (apologies to Dr. Strangelove

For godsakes this is AUSTRALIA, not the middle east, I am sick of this country being PC! We would get treated like **** if we went over there, yet we have to bow down to them, they get centrelink benefits, housing and the works all they come here and DEMAND everything, they are destroying our aussie way of life and god forbid we have a santa atthe local school, oh no we can’t have that because some muslim doesn’t like it. Wait untill a bomb goes and kills one of your kids and don’t come sobbing anywhere near me.

maybe Lucy should go and frame her kitkat wrappers to keep her mind occupied rather than rambling on about Muslims.

Ok I am off, I won’t be back, I have stirred up enough trouble, I am only saying what 99% of Perth thinks anyway. Don’t you remember what the 25th of April is, brave men shed blood for our way of life and many did not return home and for what? For this? Forget it, we should have a zero tolerance program, LOVE IT OR LEAVE. See you around town NOT.