A group of British parliamentarians and peers called on Finlalnd not to ban kosher slaughter.
The lawmakers sent a letter to the Finnish ambassador to the UK, calling on the EU nation to amend its Animal Welfare Bill to allow for forms of religious slaughter that do no involve mechanically stunning the animal first, the UK Jewish News reported.
The MPs and peers warned in their letter that the proposed Finnish bill would cause kosher slaughter to be de facto banned.
The Animal Welfare Bill, as proposed, would make illegal all slaughter that does not adhere to mechanical stunning of the animal. It has been criticized by Jewish activists in the UK as making life increasingly difficult for observant Jews in the EU, including the Shechita UK organization which presented its case to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on International Freedom of Religion or Belief in the British parliament.
“The creeping intolerance of religious communities across Europe is of great concern,” the APPG’s chair Jim Shannon MP said. “We must and will stand together to defend religious practice, including for Jews and Muslims in the face of growing attacks on religious slaughter.”