Muslim initiative donates meat to Dutch poor

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 27 November 2009 - 4:37pm | By Michel Hoebink

During the Islamic Festival of Sacrifice (also known as Eid al-Adha), that is celebrated by millions of believers worldwide from today, Muslims are supposed to donate meat to the poor and needy. As they were led to believe that poverty in the Netherlands was non-existent, until recently many Dutch Muslims did not know how to fulfil this requirement. But in the last few years, a Dutch Muslim organisation has started to collect meat for poor people in the Netherlands.

"It is taking Dutch Muslims a long time to wake up to the fact that there are poor people in the Netherlands", says Veyiz Gungor of the Joint Muslim Aid Organizations (SMHO). "But it is a fact that more and more people in this country live below the poverty line. The increasing number of food banks bears witness to this."

Successful initiative

The Islamic Festival of Sacrifice commemorates the willingness of the prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. Tradition prescribes that each family slaughters a sheep. Part of the meat is for the family, part for the neighbours and part is to be given to the poor. The SMHO has begun collecting meat during the Festival in order to distribute it to the poor and needy in the Netherlands.

The initiative, which started four years ago, has become a success. "More and more Dutch Muslims know where to find us", says Gungor. "In the first year, we collected a thousand kilos of meat, last year 3000 kilos and this year we expect 4000 kilos."

There are special gathering points, usually Islamic butcheries, where Muslims can bring their meat. After the three day Festival, the meat is collected and brought to a factory in Zoeterwoude, where it is processed into Turkish sausages. The sausages are then distributed to the food banks.

Religious duty

The initiative is originally Turkish, but increasing numbers of non-Turkish Muslims are participating. "The larger part of our target group is of Turkish origin,” Gungor says. “That is because it is easy to communicate with them through the Turkish mosques. But in the past years, more and more Surinamese, Moroccan and Indonesian Muslims call us to ask where they can bring their meat."

There are also Muslims in the Netherlands who replace the sacrificial animal with a financial offering. They send money to poor people in their country of origin. This practice is very common among Indonesian Muslims in the Netherlands, says chairman Firdaus of the Indonesian mosque in The Hague. "The 'kurban' - the money that is used to buy a sheep - is collected in the mosque and sent to Indonesia, where it is channelled to the poor people." Veyiz Gungor is aware of this practice but says it is theologically controversial. "The majority of Muslims believe that the slaughtering of an animal is a religious duty."

How do Dutch Muslims slaughter animals? Most Dutch people have heard the story about the Muslim neighbour who slaughters a sheep on his balcony. But on closer examination, this story is not borne out by experience. In Muslim countries, it is indeed often the case that the father of the family slaughters a sheep at home on the first day of the Islamic Festival of Sacrifice, but in the Netherlands it is forbidden to slaughter at home.

Dutch Muslims usually go to the slaughterhouse on the first day of the Festival, where a sheep is slaughtered for them. The meat and sometimes the head are taken home; the intestines and the skin remain there. In recent years, many Dutch Moroccans have stopped going to the slaughterhouse altogether. They order a sheep from their Islamic butcher, who has it killed in the slaughterhouse on the day of the Festival.

"In the afternoon you collect your sheep from the butcher's shop", says Mohamed Amezian of the Radio Netherlands Arabic Department. "I personally do not feel the need or desire to be present when the animal is slaughtered. But Muslims who are more strict in their beliefs may think that one has to be present at the slaughtering."

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