I WON’T get too involved in the halal argument, but I would like to say one thing to either camp in this absurd debate.

Firstly to Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi, who claims the halal method is proven to be pain free for the animal being slaughtered. This is not true.

I would ask Ms Qureshi to look at the research carried out by the prestigious Univerity of Massey in New Zealand.

According to the study, brain signals have shown that calves do appear to feel pain when slaughtered according to Jewish and Muslim religious law. It was recommended to the RSPCA a few years ago that this method is cruel and should be banned To the people on the other side of the debate, just because you stun an animal before killing it doesn’t make this method any more humane than halal, because a life is still being taken.

There is no real moral argument that says that stunning is more ethical than halal and vice versa.

If we strip the right-wing propaganda away from the debate, the real reason why many are complaining is because it makes people think about how that steak has ended up on their plates.

It shows people that the packaged and dressed meat they buy in the supermarket was once a living animal that was then killed for the plate.

This is something that many meat eaters don’t think about too much and are uncomfortable with if the truth be known.

I think Muslims and non-Muslims engaging in this absurd tit-for-tat debate should really pipe down now. This debate is making many of us want to fall asleep with a pillow over our ears. You are both wrong!

Steve Jones Morris Green