"To get halal and kosher here you used to have to go to a specialist supplier."

Indeed!
There was an interview with Josceline Dimbleby the well known food writer on the radio a couple of days ago in which she remembered that when she wrote her first recipes for 'a well known supermarket' they stocked only one drum of 'mixed herbs' and another of 'mixed spices' To get any of the wonderful range of ingredients we take for granted these days you would have had to go to a specialist supplier
Times have changed

"Now it is becoming ubiquitous."

I understand the definition of ubiquitous as being or 'seeming to be' everywhere at the same time;

The recent manufactured outrage by the Mail on Sunday to the serving of halal meat continued in The Sun, The Express and the Mail Online used such scare headlines as, "Outrage over secret halal"; "Millions being served secretly with halal meat" and "Halal Britain." so indeed, to readers of these publications, Halal meat would indeed seem to be omnipresent

One website claiming to be 'watching the (left wing) enablers of Islamisation' carries the typical headline " 'Hidden Halal' Meat is Flooding Britain "

The article is an interesting combination of contradictions

"Most lamb imported from New Zealand by British supermarkets has been slaughtered according to Muslim law, but this is not mentioned on packaging"

{As long ago as April 2004 the BBC news site was reporting that
"New Zealand's method of slaughtering lamb could satisfy both religious practices and welfare concerns in Britain" and "nearly all New Zealand lamb imported by Britain is stunned and then slaughtered observing halal principles."}

Or, as the site says later
"The supermarkets and fast-food outlets said they did not feel the need to tell customers that meat is halal because the slaughter conformed to Western standards, with animals stunned before being killed."
But continuing…
"More than 70% of New Zealand lamb imports to Britain are halal… but you wouldn't know it from the label."
And
"All Islamically slaughtered lamb and chicken sold in British supermarkets is stunned before being killed, but is not labelled as halal."

In other words the only 'difference' that requires a specidic label on the package is that a prayer has been said at the point of slaughter!

The article end with the emotive appeal

"Where is the due care paid to people who do not wish to eat ritually-slaughtered meat, or, more particularly, meat ritually-slaughtered for the Muslim market?
What about the people who object on compassionate grounds?

This is a particularly nasty practice and it should be stopped in its tracks. But the only way is by direct action and wider exposure.
If people do not put pressure on their MPs or representatives, organise local action and lobby local media; nothing will happen."


A site that looks at the vilification of Muslims in some of the UK tabloid press comments

"Each article uses words to depict a covert operation of halal by stealth, pushed on to "unsuspecting diners". Put together, these conjure up images of the myth that there is a creeping Islamification of Britain, further stoking the manufactured fear of a Muslim takeover

The debate is framed around the issue of animal welfare and customers not being informed of how their meat is slaughtered. Why would it be an issue whether the meat is halal or not?

The issue certainly isn't about animal welfare.

If it was, why do we not find campaigns against battery farming practices in Britain?

Why no moral outrage there by the public?
Let's also not forget, Kosher, like halal meat, is prepared by draining the blood from the animal before being prepared so why is the focus of this attack exclusively on the Muslim community?

It is naïve to assume that the issue is one of animal rights or customer choice. Halal meat has been served in "Indian" restaurants, run by Muslims, for decades and yet the moral outrage only finds expression now"

Steaming Willie said "veiled bigotry using animal welfare as a convenient cover is rather distasteful if you ask me."

hear hear!