Sunday, January 08, 2006

Wanted: Polish halal butcher!


Due to a shortage of Muslim halal butchers in the UK an advert has been placed in the local press in Bialystok, northeast Poland, to fill the gap.

But what qualifications do Polish Muslims need to follow in the footsteps of around 250,000 Poles who have made their way to Britain since the expansion of the EU a year and a half ago? The ad calls for “Muslims... who pray five times a day and adhere to the principles of halal cuisine, with no pork or alcoholic beverage."

There are about 25,000 Muslims in Poland, many have been here for centuries. News24,com reports, “Around one-quarter of Polish Muslims are descendants of Tatars who fled the Mongol warrior Genghis Kahn over 600 years ago, many settling in Poland's Bialystok region, near the border with Belarus.”

Wojtek Kość at the Central European Review writes that during Communism, Polish Muslims were not allowed to organize civil associations. But today they are recognized as an official religious minority.

They are organized in six religious communities: Warsaw, Białystok, Bohoniki, Kruszyniany, Gdańsk, and Gorzów Wielkopolski. They have three mosques: an 18th century one in Kruszyniany, a mid-19th century one in Bohoniki and a new mosque built in Gdańsk in 1990. There are also prayer houses in Warsaw and Białystok.

Abdulwahab Bouali, 31, takes care of the Białystok prayer house. He is a member of the Muslim Students Association in Poland, a union of followers of Islam from Muslim countries in the East who have come to Poland to study. Born in Algeria, he has lived in Poland for 14 years now and is a pilot who graduated of the Dęblin Aviation School.

"The prayer house I'm taking care of—and live in—will only serve its purpose until the mosque is built here in Białystok," he says. "What we're doing here is ensuring local Muslims get a chance to practice their faith. We also organize lectures for people of other creeds, because the picture of Islam they get from TV is distorted. It is associated with terrorism and a lack of rights for women, but the truth is that Islam is the only creed that does assure women true rights."

Yeah, right. But get ready Brits - you have learnt to love the Polish plumber, now get ready for the Polish Muslim butcher!

9 comments:

michael farris said...

Considering the number of Muslims in Britain, they really must be pretty useless if they can't scrape up enough butchers. I'm sorry I can't think of any more diplomatic way to put that.

beatroot said...

But Michael - would you want to be a halal butcher?

michael farris said...

If I were otherwise unemployed/unemployable, yes.
I also thought there was no shortage of young muslim men who fit into those categories in Britain.

Metka by Traczka said...

With the british muslims its very mixed. It depends which country the family is from. It's a class thing. And the 7/7 suicide bombers were all educated people with jobs and stuff. And in London, people don't need to get a job in a butchers, cause it's virtually full employment and people can pick and choose. So why not get the central europeans in and pay them 7 pound an hour - that's three pounds more than the minimum wage.

But I still couldn't in a butchers...

Anonymous said...

Salaam to the Muslim Butcher,

IT IS A KNOWN FACT THAT PEOPLE FIND IT EASIER TO TALK BADLY ABOUT THINGS THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND. BEING A SUICIDE BOMBERS, YOUNG OR OLD, RICH OR POOR HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ISLAM, THE QURAN, HOW MANY MASAJID ARE IN BRITIAN OR POLAND. WHY ARGUE ABOUT A MATTER YOU HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE, A MUSLIM IS ONE WHO SUBMITS TO ALLAH, THE CREATOR, PROTECTOR, PROVIDOR, GRANTOR OF VICTORY. ISLAM PROMOTES SUCCESS, LIFE, ENLIGHTENMENT, ENHANCES LIFE, AND DEMANDS THAT MUSLIMS STAND UP FOR WAY IS WRITE AND USING THEIR HAND AS IN BATTLE IF NEED WITH A WEAPON THAT CAN TARGET THE ENEMY (NOT AMERICAN DRIVE BY SHOTTINGS THAT KILLS MANY OF THE LITTLE CHILDREN ON THE STREET CORNER IN HOPES THAT ONE OF THEIR WILD FLYING BULLETS WILL HIT THE OPPOSITE GANG MEMBER OR MOB GUY), LET YOUR SWORD BE SHARP THAT YOU MAY SPARE SUFFERING IF YOU MUST KILL. SUICIDE BOMBING IS FOR COWARDS IN THE DIN OF ISLAM CONDEMNS COWARDICE. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT ISLAM OR WHY PEOPLE ARE DOING THINGS IN THE NAME OF ISLAM YOU SHOULD ASK INSTEAD OF IDLE TALKING ABOUT IT WITH OTHER PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW. MANY PEOPLE ARE SMART, THEY JUST SAY UNEDUCATED THINGS THAT ONCE RELEASE FROM THEIR MOUTH ARE HARD TO RETAIN. SOME PEOPLE MAKE BEING GOD FEARING, LOOK BAD. WE DON'T BLAME ALL CHRISTIANS FOR DAVID CORASS OF WACO, TX, OR THE CATHOLICS FOR THE MANY CHILD MOLESTATION CASES THAT EXIST TODAY, THEA JEWS HAVE JUST BOMBED KILLING MANY WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN LEBENON BECAUSE THEY DID NOT KNOW HOW TO BOMB THEIR TRUE ENEMY HASBELA BUT IT DID NOT STOP HASBELA FROM CONTINUALLY BOMBING ISREAL. AND LET NOT FORGET THAT FOR YEARS THAT WHITES HAS HANGED, RAPPED, TORN IN HALF THE BODIES OF LIVING AFRICAN AMERICAN AND THEY WORLD SAT BACK AND WATCHED. LET'S TALK ABOUT THING WE KNOW AND IF WE HAVE THE COURAGE TO STAND UP TO THAT THEN LET TALK ABOUT WHY POLAND CAN'T FIND A MUSLIM BUTCHER.

Anonymous said...

meat is meat.....if they need it cut bad enough....then hire a normal retail butcher

Anonymous said...

You uneducated fools.

Why are you scared of spiders, snakes or sharks... because you were raised that way.

Why do Muslims seek Halal food... because they were raised that way.

Why do Jews deman Kosher foods... because they were raised that way.

Be midndful of the culture you are commenting on.

No one ever complains about why English people smell so bad. They were raised to not shower or bathe often. That's just how you were raised.

Anonymous said...

What an absurd comment, English people do not smell 'so bad'. You get the odd person in every culture who does not enjoy showering, but talk about a racist generalization!

alimadnan said...

Red Cow Meat Training Institute (RCMTI) is the first training institute in Asia that trains Muslim Halal Butchers who are capable of neatly cutting, packing and making value-added meat of all kinds. Visit www.rcmti.edu.pk.