Going “gently” to slaughter
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2001:
NEW YORK CITY, WASHINGTON D.C., BRUSSELS–Osama bin Laden
told the 19 terrorists who killed at least 5,690 people on September
11 to seize the aircraft they used as weapons by cutting the throats
of their first victims in the manner of hallal slaughter.
The bin Laden document was published by The New York Times
and closely reviewed by expert commentators, as the October 2001
ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial discusses (page 3)–except that the experts
did not menton hallal, the central metaphor in it. They did not
talk about the significance of bin Laden emphasizing that his suicide
attackers were to think of themselves as butchers and the people they
killed as meat.