The Emancipation of Animals Will Not Be Built On Racism

The past decades Europe witnessed the politicization of ritual slaughter according to Jewish and Islamic rites. While a law banning ritual slaughter comes into effect in September 2019 in Flanders and Wallonia, the Brussels Capital Region is still enmeshed in heated discussions. The debate is generally depicted as a struggle between religious freedom and animal rights, obfuscating the possible entanglements with racialization. This chapter illuminates the relationship between animals, race and religion and proclaims that the emancipation of animals will not be built on racism*. It is demonstrated that the regulation of animal practices and the differentiation between ‘cruel’ versus ‘permissible’ practices has historically functioned in the construction of colonial empires. Furthermore academic findings are introduced showing that the politicization of animal treatment by ethnic minorities contribute to the racialization of such minorities as well as to fashioning nationalism in contemporary multicultural societies. Taken together this chapter urges us to be mindful of the dynamics between race, religion and animal ethics when singularly focusing on ritual slaughter. The emancipation of animals should not be achieved by pursuing racism, for then the possibility of collective liberation and transspecies solidarity withers away from our horizon.

*The wording of this stance is loosely based on the acclaimed poem and song by Gil Scott- Heron titled ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’. This phrase became an important slogan for the Black Power movement in the 1960s of the USA.