„Jedząc kebaba..." Zwierzęta i zwierzęcość a islamofobia
"Eating a kebab ... ": Animals, Animality, and Islamophobia

Summary/Abstract: This article presents an overview of the main threads of the conflict between animal rights and the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in the context of the dispute over ritual slaughter and halal meat production in Europe. I suggest analyzing this debate and its Islamophobic aspects from the perspective of animal studies and postcolonial theories. On the one hand, a post-anthropocentric view allows criticism of the "humanitarian" slaughter of animals as part of industrial meat production in modernity, and, on the other, postcolonial theory indicates the use of the notion of "animality" and "animalization" in a racialized hierarchy of power. The combination of these perspectives destabilizes the polarization of discussions on ritual slaughter between animal rights and religious laws, and thus shifts the burden of analysis to a criticism of the mutually reinforcing systems of oppression that reify animals and dehumanize marginalized ethnic groups.

• Details
• Contents