Morrissey Just Compared Kosher Slaughter To ‘Rape’
The man, the myth, the militantly vegan legend.
Pop singer Morrissey of the Smiths fame doesn’t speak to the press anymore. So when he posted an interview on his own site, www.morrisseycentral.com, viewers rushed to see what kind of unhinged things he said and were rewarded with talk of Brexit, the debauchery of London and calls for a ban on kosher food.
Interspersed between images of animals bleeding gruesomely to death was the singer’s rants on the cruelty of halal and kosher slaughter, comparing the term humane slaughter to humane rape. “It, too, must be banned,” said Morrissey of kosher food, in addition to halal. “If you use the term ‘humane slaughter’ then you might as well talk in terms of ‘humane rape.’ People sound very stupid when they mention ‘humane slaughter.’”
Jewish slaughter has, in Jewish tradition, been viewed as a humane way of slaughtering animals. The animal is meant to be slaughtered as quickly as possible to save it from pain. Jewish groups repeatedly cite the hypocrisy of these policies, saying that kosher bans often lead to further anti-Semitic policies.
While Jewish slaughter has been suspect in the past, “when the cut is done correctly, the animal appears not to feel it,” Temple Grandin, American professor of animal science and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior famously wrote.
But Morrissey clearly has other ideas.
“Nothing I say is provocative,” said Morrissey. “They are just facts.”
Shira Feder is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected]
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO