The Queen held a state banquet of halal food for the President of Turkey on 22nd November at which she assured him that HM Government would help Turkey join the European Union.
(1) Where and how and by whom were the animals slaughtered and cooked and which Muslim certifying authority approved it?
(2) Since when did it become HM Gvt policy to campaign for Turkey to join the EU? Actually, the answer to this is since at least 2007, when David Milliband visited Turkey. But it does not hurt to ask.
(3) Did no Christian on the guest list object to eating food sacrificed to an idol?
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So who ate the Queen’s Halal nosh? Unless he went for the vegetarian option, the Archbishop of Canterbury was among those who feasted on food sacrificed to the idol ‘Allah’ at the Queen’s table. When the Queen or the Archbishop are guests of the President of Turkey (as HM was in 2008 on her state visit) do their hosts serve up and sit down to meat slaughtered in the British way, ie stunned and with no incantations to their god, in deference to the sensibilities of their honoured guests? No, because the Turks take their religion seriously.
From the Court Circular:
‘The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh gave a State Banquet in honour of The President of the Republic of Turkey and Mrs. Gül at which The Prince of Wales, The Earl of Wessex, The Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent were present.
‘The following had the honour of being invited:
‘Suite of The President of the Republic of Turkey and Mrs. Gül:
‘Mr. Ali Babacan (Deputy Prime Minister) and Mrs. Babacan, Mr. Ahmet Davutoglu (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and Mrs. Davutoglu, General Hulusi Akar (Deputy Chief of the General Staff) and Mrs. Akar, His Excellency Mr. Ünal Çeviköz (Ambassador from the Republic of Turkey) and Mrs. Çeviköz, Ambassador Naci Koru (Deputy Under-Secretary for Administrative and Financial Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Ambassador Koray Ertas (Chief of Cabinet to The President), and Ambassador M. Ferden Çarikçi (Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to The President).
‘Turkish Presidency Invitations:
‘Ms. Nursuna Memecan MP, Ms Ç. Münevver Ökten MP, Mr. Seyit Sertçelík MP, Mr. Aytug Atici MP, Mr. Tugrul Türkes MP, Mr. Mehmet Emre Gül, Mr. Murat Belge (Author and Academic), Dr. Nazan Ölçer (Art Historian, General Manager Sakip Sabanci Museum), Mr. Sedat Ergin (Columnist, Hürriyet Daily Newspaper), Mr. Erdal Safak (Editor in Chief, Sabah Daily Newspaper), Mr. Derya Sazak (Columnist, Millyet Daily Newspaper), Mr. Hakan Çelik (Editor in Chief, Posta Daily Newspaper), Mr. Rifat Hisarciklioglu (Chairman, Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey), Mr. Remzi Gür (Chairman, Gurmen Group), Mr. Ferit Sahenk (Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dogus Holding Company), Mr. Mehmet Ali Yalçindag (President of the Executive Board of Directors, Dogan Media Holding Company), Mr. Hamdi Akin (Chairman of the Executive Board, Akfen Holding Company), Mr. Mustafa Çikrikçioglu (Deputy Chairman, Turkish Union of Exporters), and Mr. Ali Kibar (Chief Executive Officer, Kibar Holding Company).
‘Specially attached to The President of the Republic of Turkey and Mrs. Gül:
‘The Hon. Mrs. Whitehead (Lady in Waiting), the Viscount Hood (Lord in Waiting) and the Viscountess Hood, Mr. David Reddaway (Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey) and Mrs. Reddaway, and Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rex (Equerry in Waiting).
‘Diplomatic Corps:
‘His Excellency the Ambassador of the State of Kuwait and Mrs. Al-Duwaisan, Her Excellency the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland (Ms. Barbara Tuge-Erecinska), Her Excellency the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Mrs. Jadranka Negodic), His Excellency the Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic and Mrs. Ekaterini Simopoulou.
‘The Cabinet and Government:
‘The Prime Minister and Mrs. Cameron, the Leader of the House of Lords and the Lady Strathclyde, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Mrs. Hague, the Secretary of State for the Home Department and Mr. Philip May, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Mrs. Cable, the Secretary of State for Defence and Mrs. Hammond, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Hon. Mrs. Osborne.
‘Special Invitations:
‘The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Speaker (the Baroness D’Souza), the Earl Marshal (the Duke of Norfolk), the Lord and Lady Sharman, the Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, the Lord Chief Justice and the Lady Judge, the Baroness Hussein-Ece, the Rt. Hon. the Lord Mayor of London and the Lady Mayoress, the Rt. Hon. Jack Straw MP and Ms. Alice Perkins, the Rt. Hon. Harriet Harman MP, Sir Augustine and Lady O’Donnell, General Sir Nicholas and Lady Houghton, Sir Mervyn and Lady King, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen and Lady Dalton, Sir Peter and Lady Westmacott, Sir Julian and Lady Horn-Smith, Sir Jonathan and Lady Cunliffe, Sir Vernon Ellis, the Lord Mayor of Westminster (Councillor Susie Burbridge) and Mr. James Burbridge, Mr. and Mrs. Simon Fraser, Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Baird, Major General and Mrs. George Norton, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Flint, Mr. Rahmi Koç, Mr. and Mrs. Ragip Balcioglu, Mr. and Mrs. Philip Dilley, Professor and Mrs. Mustafa Djamgoz, Dr. Kate Fleet, Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Grun, Dr. and Mrs Franz Humer, Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Kleisterlee, Dr. Andrew Mango and Mrs. Benedict Mango, Mr. and Mrs. John Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. Dick Olver, Mr. Richard Ottaway MP and Mrs. Ottaway, Mr. and Mrs. Hüseyin Ozer, Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Popham, Ms. Suzan Sabanci Dinçer, Ms Elif Shafak and Mr. Eyup Can Saglik, and Mr. and Mrs. Richard Swannell.’
Dear Stephen,
England has Muslim authorities who do inspect and certify whether the food is in manner prescribed in Islam.
Secondly,Allah is just an Arabic term for God. In no way it stands close to being an idol. FYI, worshiping idols is a huge sin in Islam.
Cheers
One problem for Muslims is that there are two competing authorities, viz: the Halal Food Authority, which allows stunning, and the Halal Monitoring Committee, which forbids it!
But both insist on the Shahada being said over each animal at point of slaughter, dedicating it to Allah.
Allah actually means ‘the god’ in Arabic and was what the pagan Arabs called their principal deity in Mecca. All Mohammed did was insist the people worship Allah alone; although he did initially include Allah’s three daughters, Illat (which means ‘the goddess’ just as Allah means ‘the god’), Uzza and Manat.
Dear Stephen,
With all due respect, i have no idea where you are getting your information from, but please note that “Allah” is simply the Arabic word for “God”. As a Muslim, I can tell you that Muslims believe there is one God – the God of Moses, Jesus, Mohamed, and all the other prophets. We believe that all three monotheistic religions come from this same one God, starting with Judaism, then Christianity and finally Islam. so to Muslim, in essence the three religions are the same and one of the five pillars of Islam is that you must believe in all three books and prophets. We CERTAINLY do not, nor have we ever, believed that God had daughters, nor did we ever worship these supposed daughters. We believe in the prophets – the three major ones being Moses, Jesus and Mohamed. Another common mistake is the belief that Mohamed “created” Islam. This is rubbish. He was only ever a messenger. The Koran, we believe, is the word of God. Thank you.
OK, RM, so if the Koran is the ‘word of God’, and if Allah is the same Almighty God whom Christians worship, why does the Koran say:
Surah 19:88. They say: “((Allah)) Most Gracious has begotten a son!”
Surah 19:89. Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous!
Surah 19:90. At it the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin,
Surah 19:91. That they should invoke a son for ((Allah)) Most Gracious.
Surah 19:92. For it is not consonant with the majesty of ((Allah)) Most Gracious that He should beget a son.
When the Bible says:
Matt 3:17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Matt 17:5 While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.
And of course the Koran says we can rely on the Bible:
Surah3:3. It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong).
You see, central to the Christian faith from the earliest time is the understanding that God did not stay in heaven dwelling on his majesty, but became one of us in Christ that we might be saved:
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
If you believe the Koran, you must call Jesus Christ and believe and confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Dear Stephen,
Firstly, very well said – you make a very compelling argument – thank you.
However, not being a theologian, I cannot confirm whether or not you have quoted the surras correctly – especially in light of the fact that your statement that Muslims believe that God had daughters is, I’m afraid, inaccurate.
i can however tell you this – as Muslims, we believe that God (or Allah) chose NOT to send his message down in one go, believing that humans could not cope with the new ideas – so he sent it down in three phases – Judaism, Christianity, and then finally, Islam. Each was a development of its predecessor and changes occurred to the message along the way.
The second thing I can tell you, is that we believe the newer forms of the Bible, had certain changes made to them that were not included in the original bibles (the Old Testament) – including the belief that Jesus was the son of God, as opposed to a prophet. This is not, we believe, endemic to Christianity only. We also believe that certain sayings/beliefs of the prophet Mohamed were also written down incorrectly – so we have what we call “Ahadith Sahiha” (confirmed or correct sayings of the prophet) and “Ahadith Gheir Sahiha” (incorrect or unconfirmed sayings of the prophet).
so in conclusion, we believe that Jesus was a prophet – a beautiful man to be revered, respected and listened to, but not a deity, or son of God.
I do hope that none of this sounds offensive to you or anyone else – that is certainly not my intention. Its just that you hear so much info on Islam recently and much of it is incorrect, so I’m trying to tell you what Muslims feel in as polite a way as i can, while retaining all the respect which is rightfully due to both Christianity and Judaism. it has been a pleasure speaking with you, and thank you again for your thoughts.
But that won’t do.
The Koran plainly endorses the Bible, the Old and New Testaments, as they existed at the time of Mohammed.
So when was the Bible changed and how? It must, for your argument to succeed, have been changed after the time of Mohammed. But that would involve a world-wide conspiracy to collect all existing texts, tens of thousands of them, change them all, destroy the originals and recirculate the new ones.
But there is no evidence that happened and the very idea of it is preposterous.
The Codex Sinaiticus manuscript dates from the 4th century, two hundred years before the birth of Mohammed, and in all practical detail, it agrees with the Greek Textus Receptus from which the 1611 King James Bible was translated. There are numerous early fragments and papyri, and not one of them presents a Christianity in which Jesus is a mere prophet, rather than the incarnate crucified, risen, ascended, glorified Son of God.
To correct Bermett, you are wrong about Allah. Allah was originally the pagan moon-god (one of many deities) that was worshipped by Mohammed’s family. It was only later as an adult, when he created Islam, that Mohammed re-invented Allah as a monotheistic god, and did so as a tool of political terror. Due to his limited imagination, he borrowed many facets of Judaism (including shechita – kosher, giving it the Arab word ‘halal’) and a few from Christianity.
It should also be noted that supplying halal or shechita (kosher) slaughtered meat with the intention that it be consumed by those not constrained by religious requirement is against the exemption regulations, and therefore illegal. Consequently, the Queen, the supermarkets, the NHS, and various schools (that supply halal as standard) have been acting against the law.