Eid al-Fitr is coming up on June 25th so watch out for your cat
Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan which is the Islamic holy month of fasting. It is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide.
During this celebration, in certain countries in the world, primarily from the Middle East to the Far East, millions of animals are slaughtered. It is a ritual which, we are told, is an act of thanking God for one’s sustenance and the personal sacrifice of sharing one’s possessions and food with fellow humans. The streets run red with blood in Bangladesh…
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- Eid Bangladesh
This form of ritual slaughter also takes place in the USA within Muslim communities, we are told (is this correct?). I understand that it is illegal but I presume that it is accepted out of respect for the customs of the Muslim community.
The point I want to make though is that normally goats, sheep and cows are slaughtered. I believe that they slit the animal’s neck so the poor creature bleeds to death.
One contributor to the politicalforum.com website states that,
“if Muslim killers cannot find these, they have been known to trap and use neighbourhood cats. Three years ago, I saw my then Muslim neighbour using a wooden box, food bait, a stick, and a long piece of string to do this.”
It sounds disgusting and horrific. This particular contributor states that people should not let their cats roam free if there are devout Muslims living nearby.
I would love to hear from visitors about this. I would love to know if you have devout Muslim neighbours who participate in ritual slaughter at the end of Ramadan.
Of course, it almost goes without saying, that my attitude towards the ritual slaughter of innocent animals is one of disgust and horror. It is completely inappropriate in the 21st-century. It is a form of behaviour more suited to the 15th century and earlier. And I don’t really care if that upsets the sensibilities of some devout Muslims.
For what it is worth, this is one aspect of the Muslim faith which needs to be cleaned up. There are other things that can be done to clean up this faith, the most important of which is to provide footnotes to those parts of the text of the Koran which can be interpreted to encourage violence towards others. The Koran needs to be reinterpreted and people need to be encouraged to interpret it in a way appropriate to the 21st-century in order to try and put a brake on Islamic terrorism.
It is forbidden to eat cats and dogs in Islam. From Islamweb.net fatwa #84822:
As for cat, dog and donkey, it is Haram to eat their meat according to the dominant opinion.
Jabir (Radiya Allahu Anhu) reported that “Allah’s Messenger (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) prohibited eating of the cat” . [ Ibn Majah and al-Tirmizi ].
Another Hadith from Abu Tha’labah (Radiya Allahu Anhu) reads: “Allah’s Messenger (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) prohibited the meat of donkeys” [Reported by Imams al-Bukhari and Muslim ].
As for dog, it is impure according to the majority of scholars. Abu Hurairah (Radiya Allahu Anhu) reported that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: “Purifying a container that a dog has licked is done by washing it seven times” [Reported by Imam Muslim ].
Thanks Johnathan.
Yuck! It is forbidden in Islam to eat cats and dogs.
http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?Id=84822&Option=FatwaId&page=showfatwa
Michael, once again, excellent article!! I agree with Michele S. on her above comments. The madness of the world needs to be corrected toward the anipals, and humanity in general. The answer to a good life is love, kindness and humility toward ALL living things.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens in Bangladesh as it’s not a country known for animal welfare. However I would be shocked if domestic cats are being slaughtered in the U.K. and I think we would have heard about it by now. DEFRA or Environmental Health would certainly investigate any illegal slaughter of livestock animals and have closed restaurants which bought unregistered, slaughtered meat.) To be honest, cars and the M25 cat killer cause me more concern for my cats’ safety than having Muslim neighbours.
I work with people of the Muslim faith (not all are Asian) and have several Muslim families living in my street. The ones I know who have cats, treat them very well and would be as angry as you or I if any harm came to them. The Prophet Mohammed was a well known lover of cats and the mistreatment of one is considered a serious sin.
I’m sure slaughtering cats for religious ceremonies is not in the Quran because the Islamic faith teaches followers to be merciful to animals. The Syrian ambulance driver, Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel whom many today are calling ‘Abu Hruyrah’ (father of cats)and who bravely remained in Aleppo to rescue and save cats during the on-going civil waris a shining example of those teachings.
Whilst I agree that a minority of Muslims distort the teachings of the Quran to justisfy acts of violence, cruelty and terror, so do some Christian followers of the Bible. Particularly those fundamentalists who more closely adhere to the Old Testament than the New. Bear in mind too,that there are many different versions of the Bible simply because there are numerous denominations of Christianity. This applies similarly to the Quran and the Muslim faith.