The Dutch parliament on Tuesday voted to ban ritual slaughter in landmark animal rights legislation that has been compared to Nazi persecution of the Jews by the country's Chief Rabbi.
In a rare show of unity, representatives of one million Dutch Muslims and 40,000 Jews have condemned the prohibition of halal and kosher meat as a violation of their religious freedom.
The legislation was tabled by the tiny Animal Rights Party but it quickly won cross-party support in a country where traditional religion, especially Islam, has been accused of being out of step with liberal Dutch values.
"This way of killing causes unnecessary pain to animals. Religious freedom cannot be unlimited," said Marianne Thieme, the party's leader.
"For us religious freedom stops where human or animal suffering begins."
The new ban requires that livestock must be stunned before being killed, contrary to the Muslim and Jewish "ritual slaughter" customs that require animals to be fully conscious.
Dutch parliament votes to ban ritual slaughter of animals - Telegraph
Binyomin Jacobs, the country's Chief Rabbi, has compared the ban to anti-Semitic laws enacted by during the Nazi occupation that led to the death of 104,000 Dutch Jews in the Holocaust.
"One of the first measures taken during the occupation was the closing of kosher abattoirs," he said.
"The very fact that there is a discussion about this is very painful for the Jewish community. Those who survived the war remember the very first law made by the Germans in Holland was the banning of the Jewish way of slaughtering animals."
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blue-
I say to you immigrants , if you do not want to live like a civilised human- move to Africa or some other dump- we have had enough of you .
look at thier hateful faces above.
1 million muslims ? the population of Holland is only 16 million -what happened there......