Eid Al Adha and Animal Sacrifice

I'd never heard of the Eid holiday until I saw Little Mosque on the Prairie. Then this morning I heard on a BBC podcast about a controversy over Australian Sheep imports to Egypt for the Muslim Eid Holiday.

Animals Australia has been campaigning on the issue.

As a direct result of Animals Australia’s exposure of cruel treatment in Egypt, tens of thousands of Australian sheep will be spared unimaginable cruelty, while international outrage at Egyptian treatment of animals has sparked nation-wide public and political focus in Egypt about the importance of animal welfare.

These visibly stressed Australian sheep were tied onto a roof rack to endure a terrifying journey to their place of slaughter.

Australian sheep struggled with their legs bound tightly with twine in open street markets before being be on-sold to private buyers.

During the 'Feast of Sacrifice', it is said that the streets 'run red with blood' -- clearly recorded here by Animals Australia invesgitagors in 2006.

Brutal animal slaughter is a common sight during the Eid, performed in public in the presence of adults and children alike. The shortage of animals for this year's Eid challenges this long held public belief that animal welfare 'does not matter'.

Vision of sheep tied to roof racks of cars, bound and shoved into car boots in extreme temperatures, and trussed on their backs in trucks shocked the Australian public and proved the new Memorandum of Understanding between Egypt and Australia—in which the Egyptian government committed to treating Australian animals in accordance with international standards—worthless.

It should be noted, Eid Al Adha is not just an Egyptian holiday. It's celebrated throughout the Muslim world not. Sumayyah Meehan gives an American perspective in an article in the Khaleej Times.

The sacrifice Muslims make on Eid Al Adha is not only symbolic, but it also serves a social purpose. Muslims who sacrifice an animal distribute the meat among their own families and the needy. Every year, at Haj, an estimated one million kilogrammes of meat are made available to the poor following the sacrifice. So, the sacrifice is not made to please God. It is a sacrifice of wealth and property. It costs money to buy an animal to sacrifice for Eid Al Adha and the price of lambs and goats goes up every year. The real sacrifice is in sharing the sustenance with the poor and needy. And it demonstrates our thankfulness to God for food.

I'll leave it to you what you think. Is it any worse then Thanksgiving?

Photo by Babasteve

PS Babasteve (AKA Steve Evans) ROCKS. Go check his stuff out on Flikr.