Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Bāz said: The scholars of Islam are unanimously agreed that the slaughtered animals of idol-worshippers, deniers of all faiths, and every other category of unbeliever—apart from Jews and Christians—are unlawful.

In light of these rulings on valid slaughter, and the fact that anything that contravenes them is forbidden to eat, those who asked the Prophet ﷺ about the imported meat were dealing with a people who were Muslim, yet only recently removed from disbelief. Because ignorance still prevailed among them, it was unclear whether they had pronounced the name of Allah over the animals or not. The Prophet instructed the questioners to eat that meat and to pronounce the name of Allah when eating it.
Al-Majd said in al-Muntaqā: “This ḥadith proves that people’s actions are presumed sound and valid until evidence of their invalidity appears.”

This ḥadith reminds us of the contemporary issue of meat imported by Muslims from non-Muslim countries, a subject on which modern scholars have written extensively. We cite here two excerpts from their legal opinions:
(a) Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Bāz said: “Meat sold in the markets of non-Muslim lands is lawful for Muslims if it is known to be from animals slaughtered by the People of the Book, provided there is no information indicating that the slaughter was carried out in an un-Islamic manner. The Qur’anic text establishes its basic permissibility, and one departs from that only when confirmed evidence requires declaring it forbidden. If, however, the meat comes from the slaughter of other kinds of unbelievers, it is forbidden to Muslims by textual proof and scholarly consensus, and pronouncing the name of Allah over it at the time of eating does not make it lawful.”
(b) Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥumayd said: “As for imported meat that comes from countries where the people— or most of them—customarily kill animals by strangulation, electric shock, and the like, there is no doubt that it is unlawful.”