By Latheef Farook

(This article is a response to the article “Refusal by Butchers to Stop Barbaric Cruelty Justifies Raising Demand to Stop Slaughter of Cattle” written by Sagarica Rajakarunanayake of Sathya Mithra)

I admire Ms Sagarica’s compassion towards animals especially cows. Reflecting the general mindset she has accused Muslims of committing these cruelties.

However the question is what is preventing the relevant authorities from stopping such cruelties by strict legal measures. Most meat traders point out that this is not a common practice though there may have been incidents where animals were ill treated.

I agree with her demand to ban on cattle slaughter and turn this country into a nation of vegetarians. The question is that, according to meat traders, around 80 to 85 percent of the customers have been non Muslims, Sinhalese and if they stop buying the demand drops abruptly and the number of animals slaughtered too will drop accordingly.

There is some good news for Ms Sagarica and her likeminded Sathva Mithra colleagues and friends. A group of Muslims are exploring the possibility of launching a nationwide campaign to not only stop slaughtering cows but seeking to impose complete ban on the import of any meat products. After all animals are animals wherever they come from- be it America Europe, Asia or Australia.

Every time the topic of animal slaughtering crops up the spotlight is turned on the Muslims who are projected as villains as if the entire non Muslim population in the country and the world were harmless pure vegetarians.

It is worthy to note that Muslims do not slaughter animals in cruel manner. Instead Islam has clearly and specifically stated the method to be adopted and the type of knives to be used in slaughtering animals causing the minimum possible pain. The severing of the carotid artery which the method involves causes the animal to die a rather painless death as this particular artery supplies blood to the brain and its severing causes a natural anesthesia. It has been proved time and again that the Islamic method of slaughter is the most humane method of slaughtering compared to other methods such as stun gun for cattle commonly followed in the so-called civilized west.

Also slaughtering animals is done by selected Muslims who have been trained in the field and strictly abide by the rules laid down in Islam when taking the lives of animal for food. However Ms Sagarica has confined her compassion to cows only in Sri Lanka. It should be extended to cows worldwide.

Meat industry is one of the largest industries in the world involving livelihood for millions of workers and billions of dollars of business. In the United States alone oil and meat, especially, beef, remain the two most important industries. In India where cow slaughtering is banned meat industry is a huge business. So much so India has become the world’s leading beef exporter in 2012.

According to a report by Pratiksha Ramkumar, the measures to promote meat production and export has led to a 44% increase in meat consumption and export in four years.

Data compiled by the animal husbandry departments of all states showed that, meat from registered slaughterhouses increased from 5.57 lakh tonnes in 2008 to 8.05 lakh tonnes in 2011. Export earnings from bovine (beef and cattle) meat expected to touch Rs 18,000 crore in 2012-2013.

There are around 55 Muslim countries in the world and all of them slaughter animals for the consumption of their people. No Muslim country slaughters animal as an industry for exports unlike the west that kills them for controlling market prices and for pleasure.

Many countries in the world starting from United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Holland, Scandinavia and other countries in Europe, from Australia to New Zealand slaughters millions of cows, goats, and pigs for export and domestic consumption. To these countries meat industries and meat exports which provide jobs for millions constitute an extremely important part of their national economies .

It is also well known practice in the U.S to cull millions of cattle, chicken or other livestock for the simple purpose of controlling market prices whenever there is over-production that does not suffice for market needs. These countries prefer to destroy their surplus animals rather than sell them for a lesser price. Further in countries like UK, we often hear of millions of cattle being culled simply because one or two cows contract the harmless hoof and mouth disease which could be treated by a simple medical solution.

This needless killing is simply done for the purpose of restoring confidence in their meat industry.
Do the animal lovers in the Island know the type of methods used by these meat exporting countries to slaughter animals? The meat from these countries are prepared and packed in different forms and sold in almost every super market chain all over the world including Sri Lanka. Despite religious beliefs even local television networks display, in their colorful advertisements, a wide variety of tempting sausages and other items enjoyed by happy families.

One also comes across the practice of killing animals for pure pleasure such as bird shooting in the US, fox hunting in the UK and bull fighting in Spain. To this must be added the terrible experiments on animals that go on in many laboratories across the world. Such barbarities needless to say are unheard of in the Muslim world as Islam clearly prohibits the killing of animals except for food or in self-defense.

Did any animal lover in Sri Lanka object to the large scale slaughter of animals in these meat exporting countries. Did anyone ask them not to slaughter but be kind to animals? Did any of them raise this issue with diplomatic missions of these countries here? In fact the Island’s animal lovers have not even thought about it so far.

They restrict their compassion only to local animals and that too only to cows as if other animals such as goats and pigs were without life. Once again it is the conditioned mindset molded against Muslims who are easy prey in the local media, especially in the absence of an organized Muslim media that might put across their views to educate the masses on the Muslim bashing that we see too often in the media.

Starting from Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, South Korea, and North Korea to Peoples Republic of China and Japan are all predominantly Buddhist countries. Are the people of these countries vegetarians? Instead millions of all kinds of animals, especially pigs, are slaughtered on a daily basis for the consumption of people there. In Thailand various types of animals are slaughtered and consumed with relish while people in some countries in the Far East eat the monkey brain as a fabulous delicacy as other vital parts of rare animals.

Here in Sri Lanka which is a multinational, multi religious, multi linguistic, multi racial, and multi cultural country, slaughtering cows has been an issue of concern. But this issue needs to be sorted out certainly not by politicians who ruined this country but by enlightened religious and civil society in a peaceful manner.

After all this is a human problem. Irrespective of religious beliefs human beings in general eat meat, take liquor, smoke and gamble, commit adultery, crime and the like. How can one legislate against these individual desires and pleasures?

One should not forget that we live at a time when the Muslims all over the world are demonized as terrorists ,harassed, persecuted, tortured and killed under a ferocious global campaign unleashed by the United States together with Europe and Israel. Sri Lankan Muslims can’t be exceptions.

Courtesy:latheeffarook.com