ISN’T IT ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT THE MAJORITY OF THE INHABITANTS OF A PARTICULAR NON-MUSLIM COUNTRY ARE FROM THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK?
No!!! Especially not when the percentage of the population who are not from the People of the Book is substantial. Most of the scholars think that 10% or more is considered substantial; and that is not the religion of the majority of the population that matters in this case, but the religion of the slaughterer himself. If the slaughterer is neither a Christian or a Jew, the meat is Haram for Muslims to consume even if the majority of the population are Christians and Jews. Conversely, if the proportion of People of the Book in a certain country represents only a minority but it is known that the meat in the market comes from animals slaughtered by that minority, then the meat is eligible to be Halal (we still need to look at the slaughtering procedure). It should be pointed out here that extrapolating the public polls and statistics regarding percentages of faith in the general population to a particular strip of it (i.e., the meat industry) is an incorrect and misleading way of determining the faith of those who work as slaughterers. IF THE CONSTITUTION OF CERTAIN COUNTRY IS SECULAR AND THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT ADOPT CHRISTIANITY OR JUDAISM AS ITS STATE RELIGION, ISN’T THIS SUFFICIENT GROUND TO RULE THAT THE MEAT SOLD IN THE MARKET OF THAT COUNTRY IS HARAM FOR MUSLIMS TO CONSUME?
No. Such consideration has no bearing on the ruling in this matter. If the country has a secular constitution but the slaughterer is from the People of the Book, the meat is still eligible to be Halal. It is only if the slaughterer himself is not from the People of the Book that the meat becomes Haram. Governments may nevertheless indirectly affect the final ruling if they enact laws about the slaughtering procedure that would make the meat Haram. The reason that this question was addressed is to show the process of "Tahreer Mahali-neizaa" (Determining the area of contention) in which irrelevant elements are sifted out and the fact that some Muslims repeatedly use it - erroneously - to show that the meat in a non-Muslim market is Haram.
