While in his previous videos his diatribes were fairly clear and well-reasoned, in his latest video, below, Condell just comes off as a racist. As I was watching it I was feeling disgusted and thought to myself, switch out just a few words and he could easily turn this on any other minority group - switch "Muslims" for "Jews" and "halal" for "kosher", and none of us would appreciate him so much anymore.
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Rafi,
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel that your basic point is correct. The way Pat Condell speaks about Halal meat slaughter sounds almost exactly like the attacks on Kosher meat slaughter; and, if he is just opposing Halal because Muslims do it, that does indeed make him racist.
However, I see a delicate nuance to analyze in this case, and that may be difficult to express on a blog comment, but I suspect that it reveals a more complete picture of Pat Condell.
He has always been abrasive, so his abrasiveness is not surprising whether he is racist or not. In the past he has also passed over distinctions between violent racist Islam and moderate Islam, claiming, more or less, that this is just for appearance's sake. This kind of claim, though I think that there is quite a bit of truth to it, already leaves one open to possibly being racist.
Just because someone is of the Muslim religion does NOT prove that he supports terror and denying the rights of others, and I think that Condell would probably agree to that. However, since there are very many Muslims who claim to be moderate and peace loving, but actually support oppressing everyone else; there is a problem drawing the line without being naive (and you will notice that we have a similar, though not as violent, problem with our Jewish religious extremists and the groups from which they have sprouted, whether settlers or Chareidim, and the lack of clear denouncing from most leaders of those groups).
Here Condell has approached, or perhaps crossed, the line into racism before (though I always gave him the benefit of the doubt, that he was just abrasively making a point and not being racist).
So here I wonder whether he may simply truly believe that this certain type of slaughter is inhumane, and then I wonder what he knows about Jewish Kosher meat and would he consider it inhumane also from purely humanistic motives.
He also speaks of Halal in a belittling fashion as being, as it were, sort of automatically connected to Islamic terror; and that leap of faith (or reason) could be racist.
So I am left with the feeling that Condell may be too knee-jerk anti-Islam to be truly non-racist, but what bothers me about that is that he, nevertheless, makes some very good points in this video. The muslims certifying non-meat as Halal are making a "racket" out of it, and much of the money paid to Islamic organizations, including many of those certifying Halal meat, etc., is probably being channeled to extremist terrorist organizations, as we have seen already in certain instances.
So, I am left "in a dither", as it were. I don't want to be naive about possible racism from Condell, and I also don't want to be naive about "silent" supporters of Islamic oppression and violence.
Not having developed a personal relationship with Pat Condell (since I have never met him personally), I am left with too many "holes" in his outlook to be certain whether he is an out-and-out racist, or a kind of passive racist, or simply a very abrasive man who often prefers to make his points in a rather offensive way.
So I hope that I have gotten across the point clearly: I feel upset by Condell's remarks, but I also feel that the way opinions are expressed, without much elaboration, in a medium such as five minute videos doesn't provide me with enough evidence to be certain that he is racist.
Bivrachah,
Catriel Lev
Condell is opposed to both halal AND kosher slaughter. He's a vegetarian, after all, and does not believe that religious slaughter to be subject to special exemption.
ReplyDeleteHowever, he has much more of a problem with Muslim practises than the Jewish ones for the following reasons:
a) Halal meat is frequently served to people without their knowledge or consent in places like schools and hospitals;
b) A lot of meat in British supermarkets has its origins disguised - so, for example, halal meat is not labelled as such.
c) The other things that Condell has mentioned in his video.
In large part, Condell's beef is really with Islamisation rather than the meat itself.
I don't think I'd be against halal if it was done along kosher lines, with the same attitude (i.e. don't foist it on non-Jews/Muslims, don't aggressively demand your specific kind of meat when there are other suitable - i.e. vegetarian - alternatives available, and don't make pricks of yourselves).
Pat Condell does not agree with halal or kosher slaughter, as it is BOTH dreadfully cruel, not that you would care much about that. And may I remind you, it is not your right to inflict pain and suffering on animals because of your third world primitive perspective.
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