(AFP) Austria rejected Friday registering Jews who want to purchase kosher meat after a far-right politician proposed introducing stricter controls on ritual slaughtering to reduce the practice citing animal rights.
Gottfried Waldhaeusl, a cabinet minister of Lower Austria and member of the Freedom Party (FPOe), made headlines this week when he called for controls, including registration, to rein in the slaughtering of animals without first stunning them.
But Austrian government spokemsan Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal said the country would “protect the freedoms and fundamental rights of our Jewish fellow citizens and can assure that they will be upheld and in no way limited.”
