The Ruling on the Slaughter of the People of the Book and Whether the Mention of Allah's Name is Required in Their Slaughter

The Shaykh : And on this basis, the strictness regarding the slaughter of the People of the Book and the argument that they did not mention the name of Allah—we say that even if they did not mention the name of Allah, the matter is not a matter of scholarly consensus. Rather, even if they did not slaughter by cutting the windpipe and the gullet, but they believed that this slaughtered animal is food, some scholars say there is no harm, due to the generality of His saying: meaning whatever they have made food and believed to be food, however it was slaughtered, is lawful. The point of this comment is that we should not be strict with people in this matter. Now, there are people who are strict with their brothers, saying that even what is imported to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from other countries is not permissible to eat, even if it is from countries of the People of the Book, and they argue with the issue of "Allah knows best." I mean, to this day, we have not reached a sound chain of evidence that a carton was found with "slaughtered in the Islamic way" written on it, and it turned out to be fish. First, where is the evidence? And second, perhaps these are many companies that pack fish and pack slaughtered meat, and error is possible. Then, if it happens that this occurs from the ignorance of the workers who pack the fish and the slaughtered animals, do we judge everything based on this? And we see that what has come to us, in our lands and markets, is lawful. The Council of Senior Scholars requested representatives from the Ministry of Commerce in this matter after it was discussed in the council. They said, absolutely, everything that comes to the Kingdom is slaughtered in a Sharia-compliant manner, and they take responsibility for that. Yes, indeed.