Muslim rite of sacrifice collides with law

[flashl]

For six years, it has been a tradition for Muslims in the Research Triangle: After morning services on the first day of Eid al-Adha -- the "festival of sacrifice" -- scores of families leave the tweedy environs of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill and head toward an obscure plot of land on a two-lane country road.

They come to visit Eddie Rowe, a hog farmer.

The children typically run around among Rowe's loose chickens. The women prepare picnic sandwiches. And the patriarch of each family awaits his turn to slit the throat of a lamb or a goat that Rowe has sold him.

To Muslims around the world, this is an important ritual -- a tribute to Allah and to the prophet Abraham, who in both the Koran and the Bible is said to have offered his son as a sacrifice to God.

To research scientist Ahmed Mamai, 40, a native Moroccan, performing the sacrifice on Rowe's property allows him to maintain an ancient tradition that would be difficult to square with his lifestyle in suburban Raleigh. If he slaughtered an animal in his backyard, Mamai said with a smile, "My wife would sacrifice me."

But this year, things are not going as planned on Rowe's farm.

Last week, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services obtained a restraining order alleging that Rowe was operating an unsanitary and illegal slaughter facility.

And so on Wednesday, the first day of the three-day festival, confusion reigned in place of celebration.

...

Many of the Muslims said they felt no ill will toward the Agriculture Department -- the law was the law; they just wanted a place to practice the ritual.

...

But Rowe, 34, was angry. The Carolina native said the lost revenue was not the issue -- he hardly made anything off Eid al-Adha. More important, he said, he has come to count his Muslim customers as friends. He knows many of them by name and has been invited into some of their homes for dinner. And though raised in a Pentecostal church, he has come to respect their convictions.

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[madeline_con]

1. The law vs religious freedom.

:popcorn:

[Kali]

6. property rights and animal welfare too

:popcorn:

[madeline_con]

8. True, true.

:popcorn:

[RC]

2. I wonder how much of a problem this would be if this were a Christian ritual?

[Critters2]

3. Moot. Animal sacrifice has never been a Christian ritual.

It conflicts with Christian theology. I wish this were true for all faiths, for the animals' sake.

[RC]

4. No it is not moot.

I said "... if this were a Christian ritual?" Also animal sacrifices were practiced in the Christian bible.

[Critters2]

5. Animal sacrifice was pre-Christian. Christian theology

emphasizes that there is no need for animal sacrifice after the death of Jesus. Christians accept as canonical pre-Christian texts, and include these in the canon. Animal sacrifice was done before Christ. Not after.

[Wizard777]

9. I don't know about that. Jesus was a Jew and they made animal sacrafices at the temple.

So technically I guess you are right. The animal sacrafices of Jesus would be a part of Judaeism and not Christianity.

[Critters2]

11. Jesus became angry about the practice of animal sacrifice.

So were the prophets, who were the obvious models for his ministry.

And the church never practiced animal sacrifice after the crucifixion.

[flashl]

7. Many Muslims purchase their lamb at "halal" markets

For Muslims, a meal of lamb during Eid al-Adha is as important as turkey is to Americans on Thanksgiving Day. They eat the meat themselves and also give some away to those in need, in observance of Quranic law.

Many Muslims purchase their lamb at "halal" markets, where butchers follow Quranic edicts, including using a sharp knife to quickly slice the animal's throat instead of electrocuting or shooting the animal ... They want to say their name to the animal, look it in the eye and assure that it dies honorably.

...

Hordyk, who is not Muslim, said she has sold sheep to individuals for religious holidays, including the feast marking the end of Muslim Ramadan and the Greek Orthodox Easter, since the early 1970s. In recent years, though, she has gone from selling to most people who see her farm from the road to only working with people she knows are skilled enough for the job.

...

"Treating animals in a humane manner is important to Muslims," Rehab said. "No way of killing an animal is going to be a nice way, but the most merciful way is with a sharp knife rather than with electrocution."

The main purpose of the slaughter is to feed the needy, said Ervin Bayrami, a 47-year-old Bosnian Muslim.

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[Wizard777]

10. The farmer should continue with the religious ritual.

North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services cannot prohibit the slaughters and sacrafices. It's a Violation of the first amendment. No government entity can make any law concering religion or it's practises. He should sue the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for 100 million in punative damages. That should keep them from interfering with religious freedoms in the future or bankrupt them. Either way religion will be safe and seperate from the state.