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Dietary rules
At the time of the Muslim
festival of sacrifice animal rights campaigners often raise their objections claiming that the Muslim way of slaughter is barbaric. Muslims only eat meat where the blood has been allowed to drain fully from the animal’s body, and this is achieved by cutting the main artery and windpipe of the animal with a sharp knife, leaving the spinal cord intact. The lack of oxygen to the brain leads to an immediate unconsciousness, and whereas the convulsions which can be seen when the heart pumps out the blood look violent to the onlooker, the animal feels no more pain. Experiments have shown that this method of slaughter, besides ensuring a clean quality of meat free of toxics, is also much less painful to the animal than the prevalent method in Western mass production of meat using stunning or electrocution which, whilst making conveyor belt processing easier and looking more aesthetic to the observer, is both torturous for the animal and results in a harmful build-up of toxics in the meat.
Others, of
course, go as far as proclaiming that it is wrong for humans
to consume meat at all, stating that this violates the rights
of animals. Extremists amongst these groups go as far as
attacking and killing people for the perceived protection of
animal rights, but they miss a crucial point: Rights must
always be balanced by obligations, so if animals were to be
afforded equal rights with humans, the must also be tasked
with looking after other species, a task they are obviously
not capable of. Allah has created the world as a hierarchy. He
has given man an exalted position, where all other creatures
are subservient to him, but with it he has the obligation not
to abuse his position and not to destroy the world entrusted
to him. Those misguided campaigners who consider the
consumption of animal meat an excess for human beings, should
also logically eradicate all animals which live on the meat of
others, as these should not have the right to kill other
creatures for food either, and ultimately such a perverted
logic would destroy the balance of life and eradicate all the
finely tuned ecosystems Allah has created interdependently.
Animal
welfare in Islam means that we may utilise animals for food
and clothing and to do work for us, but we must adequately
look after their needs and avoid excesses. There are
categories of animals which are prohibited as food items,
including all carnivorous animals and pigs. There are numerous
reasons for such prohibitions, which is why hospitals, for
example, avoid pork in the diet given to critically ill
patients, but generally we understand that Allah has permitted
for us what is good and wholesome, and has prohibited what is
harmful, even if we don’t always have full knowledge of the
detailed effects of a substance. Nobody knows our needs better
than our Creator Himself.
Islam also
forbids the consumption of anything which might interfere with
the perception of our senses or blur our judgment, like
alcohol or mind-changing drugs. Because we are all responsible
for our deeds, we must ensure that we are in the full
possession of our mental capacities. When people come under
the influence of narcotics, their judgment of their own
abilities also becomes flawed, and Islam thus does not leave
it to the individual to decide how much of a particular drug
he can handle, but demands complete abstinence. It is often
said that such prohibition does not work and that it merely
leads to the criminalizing of people who will continue taking
drugs. This is true where people do not agree with the reasons
for a prohibition, and moral education must play a crucial
role in this respect. Due to the internalised religious
convictions of the members of a sound Islamic society,
society’s welfare is usually achieved by self-regulation of
its members rather than by policing them.
[Next: Gender relations and the centrality of family life
]
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