Posted on 01/23/2014 5:36:33 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin
Japan’s whaling mothership has been awarded a halal certificate to prove the whales it takes from the Antarctic Ocean are slaughtered in accordance with Muslim law, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
The Nisshin Maru was certified last year before it headed off to the southern ocean for this season’s controversial hunt, a spokesman for ship owner Kyodo Senpaku, said.
“Special inspectors examined the ship when it was docked in Hiroshima last year,” he told AFP. “It was certified officially on November 24.”
The inspectors advised workers on the factory ship to change the disinfectant liquid used for cleaning hands to avoid any possible contamination from the alcohol solution, he said.
“If whale meat, which is by-product of the research whaling, can be consumed as a good protein source for Muslims in Japan, I think it is a good thing,” he said.
The company made the move after one of its business partners suggested whale meat be made halal to increase the choice of meat available to Japan’s Islamic community, he said. Muslims are barred by their religion from eating pork.
The government does not produce official figures on the number of adherents to minority religions in Japan, but the Japan Muslim Association told AFP there were around 100,000 Muslims in Japan—less than 0.08 percent of the population.
The commercial hunting of whales is prohibited in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, which was designated by the International Whaling Commission in 1994, but Japan catches the animals there under a “scientific research” loophole in the moratorium.
It makes no secret of the fact that they end up on plates and the results of the research the program is carrying out are not readily available.
Militant environmentalist group Sea Shepherd annually pursues the whaling fleet through the ocean in the hope of disrupting the hunt.
Earlier this month they claimed the Nisshin Maru had been separated from the other vessels and the hunt was in disarray, although Japanese fisheries officials said it was business as usual.
So they’re mercilessly bled out and deliberately made to taste gamey as a result?
Doesn’t the world see what Islam is trying to do?
isn’t that special...
WTF? Since when is there any confusion about whether or not "whale meat" is "pork"? And what does hand sanitizer have to do with it?
Muslims in Nihon ?
Whale will definitely never be certified kosher...ever.
Sooooo, muslims are prohibited from eating pork products then what do islamic suicide bombers eat? I want to avoid that food!
Not sanitizing their tools or properly washing their hands is just a bonus.
This is cruel joke.I know there is a huge difference between a “Kosher kill” and Hatal but don’t know the process involved. Hope a FR familiar with those processes posts an explanation does.
Dang! Now I have to pull for Steve Irwin and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society...?
And, I hate those people.
What, they beheaded them right behind the blowhole?
The problem with whale roast; no drumsticks.
Me too. In fact, everyone that I have ever spoken to that watches that show roots for the Sea Shepherd to be sunk. Where in the hell do they get the money to support their fleet? Based on the definition, I think they can be labelled pirates. If so, the Japanese need to hire some armed mercenaries to protect them. A little automatic gun fire would solve the Whaler' problem.
All that said, there is certainly something suspicious about the Japanese operation that is whaling under the premise of research, especially when there is not research to be found from them (or at least that I can find linked to their efforts). And they sell the whale meat for profit?
Whaling laws specify any meat from a research kill must be sold.
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