The mainstream media and the ‘intellectuals’ of the left persuasion have, over the years, skillfully mastered the art of employing McCarthyism in furtherance of their propaganda. They use spurious allegations and accusations against their opponents so that they could hide their culpability and portray their rivals, which are always Hindus and voices who stand up for Hinduism, of being wrong and guilty. 

They use various tricks such as gaslighting, manipulation, deception and victimhood narrative to keep Hindus perpetually guilt-tripped. What was once carried out clandestinely started happening overtly and conspicuously after PM Modi was elected to the highest position in May 2014.

They are so consumed by the hatred of PM Modi and Hindus that they go to remarkable lengths to spin narratives, declaring illegitimate practices by some communities legal while deriding those who raise genuine concerns about certain practices that foster religious discrimination just for the sake of maintaining the “secular fabric” of the country.

For example, when conscientious citizens of Gurugram stood up against the namazis who squatted public roads and open grounds instead of visiting mosques for their routine prayers, rather than applauding the locals, the mainstream media and their leftist propaganda-peddlers swung into action, vilifying the residents as being intolerant and hateful of Muslims. By contrast, the media turned a blind eye to members of the Muslims community whose insistence on praying in public spaces would have caused inconvenience to the passersby, many of whom may not be Muslims. 

The ‘MacCarthyism’ of mainstream media and leftist ‘intellectuals’ to vilify critics

Likewise, another attempt is being made by the mainstream media and their leftist foot-soldiers to dismiss legitimate criticism of the religiously discriminatory practice of Halal certification as unwarranted and brand those who raise their voice against prejudicial practices as bigots. 

The Times of India recently published an opinion piece arguing that a campaign against ‘halal’ meat smacks off bigotry. The article titled “Why campaign against ‘halal’ meat reeks of bigotry” was published on November 26, 2021, against the backdrop of a spate of incidents reported from various parts of the country where Muslim cooks were allegedly caught spitting in food while preparing it. 

However, instead of premising the article on why people are campaigning against the imposition of halal certification, the Times Of India article provides a straw man argument, alleging that the opposition to halal certification is primarily due to “misinformation” being peddled in its name that halal certification entails spitting in food. While it cannot be said with certainty whether halal certification requires one to spit in food or not, but there are several other problematic aspects that the author of the article in ToI has deliberately chosen to understate to call opposition to it as bigotry. 

This is quintessential ‘McCarthyism’ that the Indian liberals and Islamists are masters at, where they project their own guilts and shortcomings onto their opponents to hide their vices. The fact that halal is intrinsically a bigoted practice that discriminates against non-Muslims is deliberately downplayed so that focus could be shifted on those facets which can be easily discredited. For instance, the article contends that the campaign against halal meat is misguided as halal practices do not entail cooks spitting in food. By doing so, the article perniciously attempts to pull the veil over other far more insidious aspects associated with halal certification and products. 

This reminds one of the dubious methods adopted by far-leftist propaganda website Alt News, where they focus on irrelevant details of an incident to muddle the readers and sow doubts about the narrative around the incident. For instance, last year, when the videos of Muslim vegetable vendors applying saliva to their produce had gone viral, Altnews tried to water down the act by alleging that the video of a Muslim vegetable vendor spitting on the vegetables was not from April but from February, as if spitting on the vegetables in February was totally in accordance with the prevailing societal norms.

The question here was, on what basis did Altnews fact-check the article? Firstly, it is astoundingly ludicrous to premise one’s fact-check not on the event itself but the date and timing of the event. But short of any evidence to prove otherwise, they decided to direct their energies on “fact-checking” the timing, date and place of happening of a particular incident, instead of what exactly happened. They were primarily concerned with exculpating the Muslim vegetable vendor. Fact-check as to when and where the incident happened held more importance than the unscrupulous act committed by the man. The possibility of the man applying saliva to the vegetables did not scandalise them because they were preoccupied with their propaganda of salvaging Muslims, regardless of their culpability. 

Here too, the Times Of India article seems to falsely guilt-trip Hindus and critics of the halal practice by claiming that they are indulging in religious bigotry while elevating halal as a legitimate and appropriate practice. It steadfastly omits to mention the central reasons as to why halal certification has seen widespread opposition in recent times. However, this has become a shockingly common practice among media organisations, where they denigrate Hindus and their objections while covering up for dubious practices by minority communities.

What is Halal?

Contrary to what the Times Of India article tries to portray, Halal is explicitly religious discrimination. It can only be performed by a Muslim man. Thus, non-Muslims are automatically denied employment at a Halal firm. Certain other conditions must be fulfilled that makes it quite clear that it is intrinsically an Islamic practice. Guidelines are available at the official website of a certification authority of Halal in India which makes it clear that non-Muslim employees cannot be employed in any part of the slaughtering process.

Throughout the document that lists the guidelines to Islamic slaughtering, care is taken to mention the religion of the employees involved. It makes it abundantly clear that only Muslim employees are allowed to participate in the entire process at every stage. Even the labelling of the meat can be done by Muslims only.

The Department of Halal Certification of the European Union makes it even more clear that employment opportunities at a Halal firm will be exclusively available to Muslims. It says, “Slaughtering must be done by a sane adult Muslim. Animals slaughtered by a Non-Muslim will not be Halal.” It states further, “The name of Allah must be invoked (mentioned) at the time of slaughtering by saying: Bismillah Allahu Akbar. (In the Name of Allah; Allah is the Greatest.) If at the time of slaughtering the name of anyone else other than Allah is invoked (i.e. animal sacrificed for him/her), then the meat becomes Haram “unlawful.”

Religious discrimination perpetuated under the garb of halal certification

Thus, it’s quite apparent that when a person demands that he be served only Halal meat, he isn’t merely exercising a diet preference but he is also playing a part in deciding who is involved in the process of slaughtering the animal and labelling it. Furthermore, Muslims are barred by their scriptures from consuming non-halal food. Thus, when a Muslim specifically demands Halal meat, it’s an explicit instance of them demanding service that can only be performed by Muslims. The obvious implication is that a Muslim denies service from a non-Muslim due to his religious identity.

Many people want to say that demanding Halal food is just a matter of choice, just like vegetarian or vegan food. But that is incorrect, while vegetarian food can be prepared by people from any community, that is not the case with halal meat. The Halal rules originate from Quran along with Hadith and Sunnah, and Muslims have to follow these rules.

It’s a whole industry where employment opportunities in certain sectors are completely unavailable to non-Muslims. It’s discriminatory towards people of not only the Hindu faith but also Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, and others. And halal is not just limited to meat alone. A complete array of products, including apparel and fashion-wear are now certified as ‘halal’, the underlying implication being the products are manufactured in adherence to the procedures ordained in the Holy Quran and other Islamic scriptures. It is explicitly prejudiced in the sense that products could be certified ‘halal’ only if they are manufactured by Muslims and follow Islamic edicts. 

Yet, the Times of India article studiously glosses over this brazen religious discrimination and instead proceeds to blame those who dare to call out this prejudice as bigots. This is yet another hack that the leftists have mastered themselves at, whereby they paint the victims as aggressors and aggressors as victims. 

Non-Muslims are castigated and disparaged because they display the audacity of raising their voices against the discrimination meted out on them. Not only do the mainstream media and the leftist ‘intellectuals’ perpetuate bigotry, they feel no compunction in labelling others as bigots when their propaganda of pandering to Islamists is challenged by non-Muslims. Without a shred of a doubt, halal is yet another form of ‘jihad’ that Islamists pursue to establish the supremacy of Islam. Therefore, there is no denying the fact that the campaign run by mainstream media and their enablers in the leftist firmament are promoting ‘soft Jihad’ by defending halal meat and halal products.