The Grand Ayatollah Sistani’s Fatwas About “Animal Slaughtering”

Question: Is it permissible to buy meat thinking that it is slaughtered according to Islamic laws from a super-market owned by a Muslim who [also] sells alcoholic drinks?

Question 1: Meat companies slaughter a large number of chickens at one time [that is, simultaneously]. Now if the person running the slaughtering machine is a Muslim, who says Takbír and says the name of Allãh (SWT) only once at the time of slaughtering all the chicken [simultaneously], is it permissible for us to eat those chickens? If we have doubt about these chickens being Halãl, can we [ignore that doubt and] eat them and consider them pure (Tãhir)?

Question 2: We enter some super markets in Europe and find meat in tin containers produced by a European company with the writing on the package that conveys the sense of it being “Halãl” or “slaughtered according to Islamic Laws”. Is it permissible to buy and eat such meat?

Question 3: On the package of meat that is produced in Muslim countries by non-Muslim companies, it says, “slaughtered according to Islamic Laws”. Are we allowed to eat that meat? Can we eat that meat, if it comes from Muslim companies in non-Muslim countries? And what is the ruling, if the source is non-Muslim company from a non-Muslim country?