Answered by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari
After doing extensive research, I have discovered the meat in the country are stunned and then slaughtered. Documented evidence has shown that sometimes the animal live and sometimes
it dies during this process. Based on another website’s fatwa
(http://www.islamonline.net/fatwa/english/FatwaDisplay.asp?hFatwaID=98314), its allowed to eat people of the book but what if you can not verify if the animal was killed when it was stunned or not?
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
The conditions that are necessary for an animal to be considered Islamically Halal, must all be met separately and independently. As such, if one condition is met and not the other, the animal would be rendered unlawful (haram).
The condition of the slaughterer being a Muslim or from the people of the book (ahl al-Kitab) must be coupled with other conditions that are indispensable. Thus, if a true Christian or Jew slaughtered the meat but failed to comply with other rulings of Shariah, it will not be lawful to consume the meat slaughtered by him.
Therefore, if the animal died before being slaughtered due to stunning, it would be Haram, regardless of whether the slaughterer was a Muslim or someone from the Ahl al-Kitab. If one cannot ascertain whether the animal dies or remains alive due to pre-slaughter stunning, then one must avoid eating such animals.
And Allah knows best
Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari
Darul Iftaa, Leicester, UK
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