The news coming from Holland (or the Netherlands – if you prefer the long version) is joyous indeed, this country has been on the headlines in this blog, mainly for letting one of their own parliament members Geert Wilders walk free of the clearly harassing accusations against him and now they are moving forward, in a very positive way.

Here are the news – the dutch parliament is going to pass a law that will require animals to be shocked before they are slaughtered, here is how it was explained in one news site (link here)

Now it is of no surprise that orthodox Jews and Muslims are upset, these people want to keep things are they were hundreds of years ago, and by saying this I do mean that once upon a time animals were killed without being shocked, the slaughter houses did not have electricity – as in fact no one had it, so it was not an option. Add to this the fact that way before Judaism or Islam those who worshiped gods sacrificed animals (and some times humans as well) to satisfy those angry gods because they really thought that gods need this blood to calm them down.

And so it got to the Jewish religion that killing animals sustained some ritual like practices, and this, in turn, moved to Islam. Both these religions ask that the animal be conscience when killed, and one would do well to note that this is not about the rest of the killing (with all kinds of crazy stuff going on when they actually kill the animal) but of the mere fact that these people really insist that the animal is to suffer as much as possible and not be stunned while being killed.

Holland is moving forward, and for this it seems they need to pay a price, the Jewish person responding to this in the article above is talking about how this brings back memories of the second world war in which the Nazis banned Kosher slaughter as fast as they invaded Holland, and Muslims talk about this being a part of a plan to kick them out (they even say its Geert Wilders idea), and this is not only absurd but insulting as well.

Lets hope that other countries start to move forward as well, and tell these people that its alright to practice the religion they like in their homes (without forcing it on anyone, or hurting anyone in its name) but the minute any idea is out of the house its out to public debate and will be changed if the actual modern life is not compatible with it, just like the idea of sitting in the dark every evening came to an end when the light bulb was invented.