They can couch their prejudices in animal-loving claptrap and wear an RSPCA badge as a fig leaf. But their victims are not fooled: when the Danes and the Germans tried to ban ritual slaughter, both Muslim and Jewish communities protested vehemently. In Denmark, to no avail; but the authorities in Germany, more sensitive to accusations of anti-semitism, backed down. They realised that an assault on a religious minority can have horrific consequences.