EUROPE’S BUREAUCRATS are not usually shy about prescribing how exactly to prepare and present food. Yet there is one ultra-sensitive matter they prefer not to touch: whether Jews and Muslims should be allowed to slaughter animals as their faith usually requires, with just a swipe of a super-sharp knife that causes blood to cascade from the veins. American bodies that promote religious freedom have called the legal mess disgraceful; animal-rights activists and secular-minded organisations agree, for exactly opposite reasons.

A mess there is. Most EU members allow a religious exception to the general rule that animals should be stunned before slaughter. But Denmark, Sweden and Slovenia do not. Finland says that slaughter and stunning can be simultaneous. The Dutch decree that the animal must not be sentient for more than 40 seconds after its throat being cut. In fractious Belgium, the Dutch- and French-speaking regions ban non-stun slaughter. Administratively separate Brussels, where many ethnic Moroccans live, has no such ban. This has prompted lawsuits by Jewish and Muslim groups; the latest has just been rejected by Belgium’s constitutional court. Two Muslim bodies may take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights.