Muammar Al Khadafi

A Muslim convert in Peterborough has spoken of his outrage after discovering that puddings at a local restaurant were not halal.

Alan Howe, who converted to Islam and took the name Mohammed Bilaal, dined at Jimmy Spices restaurant in Peterborough, a restaurant which he believed to be halal due to signs in the window.

All went well - until pudding, when he discovered jelly was available which is made from gelatin and not halal. A member of staff told Bilal that some other deserts were halal sometimes, depending on who supplied them.

"This could lead to a situation where someone is told the marshmallows are halal one week and then are blissfully unaware that they are not the next" commented Howe/Bilaal to Peterboroughs Evening Telegraph.

"For a Muslim eating anything that is not halal is a sin and to find out that a dessert had pork gelatin is extremely serious".

Outraged Bilaal has now called on the Jimmy Spices restaurant chain to provide much clearer information about the food it serves.

Meanwhile, up and down Britain, many non Muslims continue to unwittingly eat halal food, especially meats, because they are not provided with clear information by shops.

Many of them may be outraged to know the barbarity in halal slaughter, or to be consuming food which specifically complies with the strictures of Islam, but it seems nobody cares about their feelings.

If Muslims wish to know that their food is always halal, then surely it is only fair that non Muslims are afforded the same courtesy and the right to know and avoid halal foodstuffs if they so choose?

Anything else would surely be discrimination of the most blatant kind. Why should one religion get a choice, and everyone else just have to eat whatever turns up on their plate?

Fair is fair, if Islam wants the right to choose then the rest of us should get the same right.

Of course, we won't, the only right we're ever given is the right to shut up and make do, rights are for other people.