Has Amsterdam banned meat adverts to avoid offending Muslims?
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The Dutch capital recently banned adverts depicting meat products, with European far-right figures claiming the reason behind the move is to appease Muslims. The Cube uncovers the truth behind the measure.
André Ventura, the leader of Portugal’s far-right Chega party, recently claimed that the Dutch capital has banned meat adverts because they could be seen as offensive to Muslims.
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In this post on X, Ventura published a video of himself reacting to a headline that says Amsterdam has prohibited such adverts in all public places, and he says in the clip that it shows Europe is descending into madness.
"Please see the point of insanity we're reaching, this is in Europe," Ventura says in the clip. "Meat adverts, for any kind of meat, are forbidden in public spaces because Muslims get offended because they supposedly don't eat meat and don't want anyone else to eat meat or see meat ads."
"Look at this, it's happening now in Europe," he continues. "If we don't stop this in time, this is going to eat us alive, it's going to make us disappear, it's going to make us be ruled over in the future. Wake up. This is in Holland, but soon it will be here in Portugal. Wake up."
While it is true that Amsterdam has banned meat adverts, it has nothing to do with not wanting to offend Muslims.
The city became the world's first capital to prohibit public adverts for both meat and fossil fuel products on 1 May, getting rid of ads for airlines, cruises, meat, fish and other products in the process.
The move was made to bring Amsterdam in line with the local government's environmental targets, which include making the capital carbon neutral by 2050, and for residents to halve their meat consumption in the same time frame.
The approved text says advertising fossil fuel and meat products normalises high-carbon lifestyles incompatible with climate targets — it doesn't say anything about Islam anywhere.
RelatedThe livestock industry is responsible for around 15% of the world's global greenhouse emissions, according to researchers, although more recent analyses have put this total closer to 12%.
Several meat and travel industry groups have criticised Amsterdam's move as paternalistic and overly restrictive for consumers.
As the measure was quick to be brought in after being approved in January, there is still some leeway for companies to take down any posters and signage advertising fossil fuel and meat products. The authorities say that they will only start handing out fines for non-compliance from 2027 onwards.
Nevertheless, on-site and shopfront advertising is still allowed, so places such as supermarkets and butchers' shops will still be able to promote their products as normal.
While Amsterdam is the world's first capital to bring in fossil fuel and meat advert bans, it's not the first city, even in the Netherlands.
Haarlem was the first city in the world to do so, with its ban coming into effect in 2024, and other Dutch cities since following suit. Meanwhile, places such as The Hague, Stockholm in Sweden, Geneva in Switzerland and Bristol in the UK have heavily restricted or outright banned fossil fuel advertising only.
Returning to the false claim shared by Ventura, Islam does not have a blanket ban on eating meat, as he implied.
Traditional Islamic law says that Muslims can't eat pork and carnivorous animals, for example, but that other meat can be consumed as long as it's prepared according to halal requirements.
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