It’s that time of the year again where one just has to admire how much rubbish someone can pollute the internet with. I’m talking of course of this epic 33-word analysis of Eid-ul-Adha by Little Green Footballs. A great post really that honestly read to me like: “zOMG, t3h m00slams R k1lling An1malz d00d!!1!11″.
A few chuckles (pardon the pun) later, I thought I’d give Charles a pat on the back and show him how little he knows about Islam. So Chuckie, as you seem to have no clue about this custom of slaughtering animals other than what these pictures and your islamophobic instinct are telling you, here’s a small crash course:
(By the way, if you click on a link leading to LGF and get a flash video telling you that you’re an idiot, or anything of the sort, just right click the link, click on “Copy Link Location”, and paste it into a new browser window. Chuckles has the habit of breaking links from places like this.)
1) The sheep(or goat, cow, camel, whatever..) has to be in a healthy state, free from any illnesses or disabilities.
2) The person who is slaughtering the animal has to be a sane, trustworthy and experienced adult. You shouldn’t let just anybody to do this, as this deranged lizard claims right here:
#31 Mich-again
For the meat to be considered halal, the animal has to bleed to death. So while the once a year Muslim Amateur Butcher Night is bad enough, know that this is pretty much how every animal they eat all year long is killed. Restrained while they are cut and then bleed to death. Allah willed it that way.
(..)
3) The “bleeding to death” part is also pure trash. What happens is that you quickly sever the windpipe and the two main blood vessels that are responsible for the brain’s blood and oxygen flow. This leads to unconsciousness in a matter of seconds, and not a long painful death.
4) The knife has to be clean, and as sharp as possible.
5) You’re not allowed to slaughter one animal in the presence of another one. No prizes for guessing why.
6) You have to make sure to comfort the animal, and not let it be afraid. Do not under any circumstance let it see the knife.
7) Washing out the blood from the corpse is required for hygienic purposes. It also makes the meat easier to preserve. When you’re sitting in the university’s café, and the chicken drumstick your friend got had a full artery that squirted blood out when he cut through it with a knife, you’ll learn to appreciate this halal practice very much.
Those are the basics of how to have your animal slaughtered. Any other way of doing this is simply un-Islamic, and any Muslim who doesn’t follow these rules is just wrong. But if you still insist that this is all just horrible nevertheless, then you’re either plain squeamish, a vegan (understandable in that case), or a raging Islamophobe. After all, the Islamic guidelines that are clearly written in the Sunna are pretty much bulletproof in terms of minimizing animal suffering. And I bet you that your way of herding cows or pigs together in one closed area and killing them off mechanically one-by-one is even worse than what you’re seeing in the pictures.
Even this guy pointed that out:
#32 Alas
Ever been to a slaughterhouse? The way we eat meat without knowing what actually goes on during mechanized animal killing is perhaps worse. I am a meat-eater, but a visit to a slaughterhouse gives you pause. So at least they are actively seeing what killing is all about, instead of buying meat as a consumer item without any thought of where it comes from. Of course, the sad thing is that many of these Muslims probably get excited about bleeding animals to death, instead of using it as an opportunity for reflection.
The last bit is of course your typical lizard’s way of saving their credibility at LGF by throwing anything possible at Muslims. I’ll put it to you this way: NO, Muslims don’t get excited about bleeding animals to death, and NO, we don’t take pleasure in suffering animals, and NO, we are NOT a bloodthirsty perverse people, and YES, most of us have an uneasy feeling about killing animals and couldn’t do it ourselves (remember the experienced butcher part). But if you’re going to eat meat, you’ll have to kill an animal some way or the other, and you can either do it in a way to minimize any suffering on the animal’s part, as Islam prescribes, or not. If somebody happens to do it wrongly, then it’s THEIR fault and THEIR problem, not Islam itself. And before you see that difference Charles, I won’t have any drop of respect left to you.
But of course he just had to have his say on this, replying to another lizard who at least had some common sense:
#61 Charles
re: #14 JCMHaving spent some time on a farm and participated in the slaughter and butchering of the animal. Most of the photos are in line with the process.
Throwing the animal into the air. Nope.
But they do need to be secured, a large animal can hurt you.For those who are used to meat in Styrofoam trays with plastic warp the photos are a little jarring.
Uh … they’re doing this in the street. Is that standard butchering practice? What about the guy who’s dancing around and slashing with a knife?
Of course it’s not standard butchering practice, but where else should they do it when most of the city is participating? In butcher shops? We don’t have so much of those. In people’s houses? Nah.. Be more constructive there, mate!
And it’s also preposterous on your part to claim that somebody is “dancing” judging by a still picture. Maybe it didn’t dawn to you that people usually jump back after cutting through a cow’s neck in order not to get injured by a well-aimed kick.
Furthermore, on the first day of Eid-ul-Adha there is probably more charity done that in the entire Christmas season in the whole of America. When you slaughter an animal, you don’t keep all the meat to yourself, but one rule of thumb is usually to keep a third to yourself and your family, give a third to your relatives, and the rest goes to the poor and needy. In Egypt especially, where the poverty rate is high, and meat is becoming way too expensive for many people, this is how people support each other. Or when have you shared part of your Christmas turkey to the not-very-well-off guy down the street, Charles?
And then it’s a widespread tradition to give so-called “Eideyyas”. This is an amount of money you give to your children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, etc. for the occasion, and many people who have enough also give this to poor people so that they can at least get something for themselves or their families they’re supporting.
So think VERY WELL about who and what you’re ripping on. And before you acknowledge your shortcoming of understanding our society, you’ll just remain the laughing stock of people like me who have lived in such places, and know what’s really going on, you will always live with the title “Bigot” we have bestowed upon you, and “Hypocrite” for bashing Islam for this practice, and not daring to say anything about Judaism, where the kosher way of slaughtering animals is almost exactly the same. In fact, many Muslims know that if you’re somewhere where there’s no halal meat, search for kosher meat instead, if possible
So, that was my part of LGF stalking for the day. It could’ve turned into a “Little Green Fascists, revisited”, but I guess I’ll spare myself the effort for a later time. Stay tuned and happy holidays!
The Sphinx
Officially declared by wingnuts. Click 
” Gegen Dummheit kaempfen auch die Gôtter umsonst” or something….
The North-European custom of over-eating may look gross to a Muslim used to fasting, but it has its roots.
Back in the days before the fridge was invented and pretty much everyone was living in the country, we had to slaughter the animals we couldn’t feed thru winter. What we couldn’t store we had to eat on the spot, hence the christmas goose, duck, pig or whatever.
And mid-winter/Christmas was maybe the only time of year where one could eat all he wanted to: the rest of the year food was rationed.
So nowadays we battle with overweight.
And – unless vegetarian – no one has a right to judge. Even vegetarians should shut up, they can be a real bore
Last night we boiled about 30 lobsters alive, so…
Happy holidays!
Even if the practice entailed what the Lizards tell themselves it does, it would still be comparable to the suffering they willlingly subject to animals everywhere and even humans in Nigeria, Guatemala, Kerala et al. just so they can have cheap clothes or non-nutritious food for their lazy selves. What about condoning a president who chums with the vile torturers in Uzbekistan just for some vague foreign policy objectives? Or what about the real “Islamic” fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia who are given many slips to supply you with oil that you only need because Americans waste it so much?
By all means scrutinize Islam like you do anything, but if you’re going to criticize take out the rapidly diminishing rainforests out of your eyes first.
More of the yummy Kool-Aid, I’m afraid. The “this is how all Muslims do things, in every single case too, unless they are Ibn Warraq or Ali Sina—wait, they are apostates—but the Moooooslims want to kill them for that as well…” garbage. People eat this stuff up unfortunately (no pun intended), and in this case it was rightly called out. The amount of distance between most Americans from the process by which animals become our food has alienated us to the point that most of us would have trouble surviving for any period of time in conditions of just 100 years ago. Meat for us is merely a package that in no way resembles any image of what we associate with the animal it came from or it is already in a cooked form once we get it. Personally, I don’t know what I’d do if I had to try and survive in “the wilderness” or wherever, and heaven knows I’m no vegetarian.
For anyone terribly shocked by halal slaughter of animals, do they not realize what kosher meat is and how it became meat? This utter shock of so many things done by Muslims that are done by a good portion of the world’s humans as well is just so much silliness. The amount of excuses to fit in other cultures in the world which do not fall under the umbrella of the Muslim world as acceptable is wearing thin.
Charles’ comment was rather amusing, it seems that he knows nothing of the Holy Days nor hardly of the religion his blog is dedicated to. Seeing as his “Lizard Lounge” is basically a gun/hunting chat room, it seems a bit odd that they are all going on about hunting in there while expressing outrage of any sort on the main threads. I’ve heard more than one hunting enthusiast and many more chefs/professional cooks express a desire for meat in which the animal has been drained of blood by processes like halal or kosher butchering, we are merely conditioned to react with horror. Having been forced by an Israeli friend to sit through some video of a kosher slaughter though (which he included to gross us all out back here in the U.S.), I must say that it was atrocious to have to watch, and this sheep was not unconscious quickly at all. I often look back on seeing that at 19 and think of my own ignorance about how humans have almost always gotten food, religious qualifications applied to butchering or not. I’m just a well-trained Western woman who never even sees farm animals.
Xel–you are all too correct. There is a Hummer always around where I live (actually, tons of them, all ready for slaughter IMHO) that I just had to post online. The ultimate expression of the more excessive side of America (never fear, we are not all like this). But just check this one out. The bland color, accented by the American flag-design decal, driven by a suburban mom a.k.a. one of the Truck Drivers, as I call them. I finally got a pic of this HumVee for friends in Europe, all of whom were shocked that it wasn’t driven by some drug-dealer gang -member. Ahh well, just can’t get enough of stereo-types in this comment, so I must stop myself…HAHA!
I must, however, express my outrage Sphinx that you chose to report on your ’stalking” only here and not at our happy little mockery home across the way at Blogger. Shame on you! OK, just kidding, I know there is too much to pick on to stick only to the “blogging soap opera”.
Awesome dude! You Rock!