What’s the Beef in Britain Over Halal Meat?
19th March 2026
Since I last lived in London 30 years ago, Britain has seen the largest inward migration in its recorded history of more than 2,000 years, most of it from outside Europe. In 1996, the country was more than 90% indigenous English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. Today it is only 73%.
One story that really captures the mass migration and assimilation crisis of modern England is that of Harman Singh Kapoor, a Sikh immigrant who owns a restaurant called Rangrez in Hammersmith, north London. Kapoor publicly declared that he would not serve halal meat. “Halal” is the Arabic term for permitted, or clean, as opposed to “haram”—forbidden, or unclean. Observant Muslims will only eat halal food, just as observant Jews will only eat kosher.
Singh’s need to declare that he would not serve halal meat, or his manner of doing so, could be questioned. But it’s his restaurant and his call. The simple thing for any objecting Muslims to do would be not to eat there.
But this is “multicultural” London, where indigenous English are barely a third of the population. Conflicts from the old country are imported intact. Magnified on social media, the halal issue resulted in confrontations at Rangrez. At one point, a large group of men showed up outside. Singh had said he carried a knife for defense (one of five items a religious Sikh man must carry at all times, incidentally) and he was arrested. He has now apparently decided to close up shop.