Why Vegetarians grouse Sacrificing of Animals on Eid-ul-Azha?

Note: No offences against vegetarianism or vegetarians, who do NOT Interfere.

I wanted to write my next article on Eid-ul-Azha, but I have been forced to write a prelude. With just about a month to go for Eid-ul-Azha, or more popularly Bakri Eid, falling on 21st December, the vegetarian brigade is back to its sulking best again. I’ve come across more than a score of articles and blogs pouring their heart out for the ‘poor’ animals. Some have even gone to the extent of criticizing Allah, that he discriminates human life and animal life and a lot more acrimonious conjectures against the practice. I do not know and do not want to comment about other religions, but I can say about this practice in Islam is not for nothing. Eid-ul-Azha is celebrated across the world on the 10th day of Zul-Hijj (Details http://fardinq.blogspot.com/2007/12/eid-ul-azha-spirit-of-sacrifice.html), and also marks the culmination of Hajj in the holy city of Mecca. Allah clearly states in the Holy Qura’an, that he does not desire the blood or life of the sacrificial animal, but he seeks the willingness of the person to sacrifice. Unlike others, in Islam the animal after slaughtering is not thrown before the almighty or strewn around Kabaa (as was the practice before the advent of Islam). The meat is used for human consumption and the skin is sent for its usage as leather merchandise. Now how many of my vegetarian friends will deny that they never have or do use leather shoes, bags, belts or many other such articles.

Science has proved that meat is the best and cheapest source of protein for humans and is also the single largest supplier to our recommended nutrient intake for protein, even much more than pulses, beans and green leafy vegetables. What did the pre-historic man eat? What is the source of livelihood for all the shepherds and cattlemen across the globe? Perhaps there was a vegetarian brigade amongst their fore-forefathers and ancestors preventing other cavemen who would go out hunting animals for food. And why did this ‘tribe’ kept quite when millions of chicken were mercilessly hacked to death, when bird-flu spread in Asia (perhaps it was a case-in-point for the Euthanasia supporters). What about the response from the vegetarians (or eggitarians) when they say, “We eat only eggs”. Is it not akin to feticide, rampant in North India for their preference for a male child? killing the poor ‘chick’ before it can see daylight out of its egg-shell. Why do they keep quit when DDT or insecticides are sprayed to kill mosquitoes and insects affecting our crops? Perhaps Allah does not discriminate between the lives of insects or fowls and goats. They will happily boil water during rainy season to ‘kill’ the germs thriving in contaminated water, or rather gulp down glasses and eat loads of curd, yoghurt, cheese and yeast spelling doom for the billion of microbial life residing in it.

They will not think twice before chopping down a tree or cutting its branches or plucking the fruits & vegetables for consumption. Maybe the trees do not have life, they might perceive. What happens to the life of the plants when an entire crop is cut down at harvest? Our very own scientist Dr. Jagdish Chandra Basu has proved that trees and plants too have life and have feelings and emotions, which affects their growth as well. Or if plucking fruits and cutting branches is not harmful to the trees, then we can have an option of plucking the chicken legs, or the lamb thighs without killing them. Why doesn’t the vegetarian brigade run after the carnivorous animals and birds, when they catch their prey for food? Or sue the researchers when thousands or mice, frogs or guinea pigs are killed on the experiment tables in laboratories for the ‘good’ of human beings.

Let’s face the fact, the human being is at the top of the Food Pyramid, and if the killing or the ‘cursed’ word sacrifice is done for the purpose of food, then it’s not unethical, as they make others to believe. Millions of cattle are slaughtered on the day of Eid-ul-Azha across the world, but never have we heard that it has led to extinction of goats, cattle’s or camels. The simple reason is that their reproductive cycle has been devised such, that they provide for source of food for animals up the food chain.

Muslims divide their produce of the sacrificed animal on the day of Eid-ul-Azha, in three parts; one for their own consumption, second part for distributing among neighbors and relatives and the third for the poor. The skin of the animals is donated to mosques and schools run for the poor, so that they can sell it to tanneries and use the money for their chores. No part of the sacrificed animal is allowed to be sold or exchanged. Even the tons of meat that is collected in Saudi Arabia and nearby Arab countries, after commencement of Hajj is frozen, packed and sent out for distribution to the poor African nations for free; to provide the starved populations a source of nutritious protein rich food. The other parts such as skin, horns and hooves are sold to countries that require it for their industries and the money is again given out as grant to these underdeveloped countries. Eid-ul-Azha is not just a day of mass murder of cattle’s by human beings, but it marks as a day of sacrifice and sharing by Muslims, who buy the best affordable animals appropriate to their earning potential and think of their poor brothers to provide better food for those who cannot afford it.