NON-HALAL FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Re: “Flight of halal fancy”, (PostBag, June 22).

Culinary Mango points out that many national airlines from Muslim Countries serve halal-only meals. Maybe so, but I did not fly with an airline from a Muslim country, I flew Thai Airways and in my original letter that was published in PostBag on June 14, I queried why they (the flag carrier airline of Thailand which is 93% Buddhist, that is, non-Muslim) can operate a flight out of the capital city of Thailand and discriminate against the majority of their countrymen (as well as myself, a non-Muslim) by not offering passengers a non-halal meat meal.

I praised Thai Airways for offering their Muslim passengers a choice with a halal meat meal, but criticised them for their obvious discrimination against those passengers like myself who do not want to eat halal meat.

Mr Mango also points out that had the meal I was offered not had a “halal” sticker on it then I would not have known the difference. Is it really OK to dupe non-Muslims like myself (or anyone else for that matter) by hiding the origin of the food they are given to eat? Is this not deceptive?

Though Mr Mango is probably right that there is no taste difference, he completely misses the point. It’s not the taste I object to, as I have already pointed out — I object to the way halal meat is slaughtered as well as the fact that the meat is “blessed” at the time of slaughter. Neither he nor Martin R (who responded to my original letter) have even attempted to refute my allegation of discrimination. Instead they both deflect, obfuscate and resort to whataboutery. Peter Atkinson