17 September 2017

Lancashire schools ‘Halal’ row is back on the menu

THE prospect of thousands of Muslim children in East Lancashire boycotting meat in school meals is back on the agenda after a new row over halal.

The Lancashire County Council Cabinet on Thursday decided to re-open the question of whether it should use meat from animals which had not been stunned before slaughter.

It revives a row from 2012 when the authority banned all animal flesh from its 600 schools where pre-stunning has not been used.

Then the Lancashire Council of Mosques told Muslim families to boycott all such ‘halal’ meat as it did not meet their interpretation of Islamic law.

Thousands of Muslim children at 45 county council schools in Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn and Rossendale, as well as five in Blackburn with Darwen borough supplied through the authority’s central catering unit, refused to eat meals containing the meat. [This is Lancashire] Read more