DANISH SCHOOL FORCES MUSLIM TO TASTE PORK

Copenhagen, 12 Rajab 1436/11 May 2015 (MINA) – A Danish Muslim student who abandoned her culinary school after being forced to taste pork in classes has received a court order forcing the school to pay 40,000 Danish krone, or around $6,000, as compensation.

Troubles emerged when 24-year-old Muslim student was told in Holstebro Culinary School that she has to taste her own food that she cooks as part of her education which included pork, On Islam quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The student, who arrived in the country as a baby from Libya, was aware that the school asked students to prepare food with pork and wine.

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However, the requirement to eat the food also was said to be a recent requirement, according to the paper.

After being forced to taste pork, the student, who was not named by the paper, filed a complaint against the school with the Equal Treatment Board and said she was being discriminated on religious grounds.

She also reportedly stopped going to the school as a result of the requirement to eat pork, which Muslims believe is prohibited to eat in Islam.

The board had agreed with the student’s claim of discrimination ordering the school to pay the student $6,005 compensation, instead of the $70,000 asked for.

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Islam is Denmark’s second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church, which is actively followed by four-fifths of the country’s population.

Denmark is home to a Muslim minority of 200,000, making three percent of the country’s 5.4 million population.

Islam considers pigs unclean because they are omnivorous, not discerning between meat or vegetation in their natural dietary habits unlike cows and sheep for instance, which eat only plants.

Muslims do not eat pork and consider pigs and their meat filthy and unhealthy to eat.

The concept of halal, meaning permissible in Arabic has traditionally been applied to food.

Muslims should only eat meat from livestock slaughtered by a sharp knife from their necks, and the name of Allah, the Arabic word for God, must be mentioned.

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Now other goods and services can also be certified as halal, including cosmetics, clothing, pharmaceuticals and financial services. (T/P006/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)