As a child I was allowed to go with my father to a Brabant abattoir a few times during the Sacrifice Festival. I had little idea of the festivity, but thought those noisy men and all those bleating sheep in those huge stables where the strong aroma of wool and shit hung was quite a spectacle. The sheep had put a number in their ears, you could choose one on the spot.
The animals were maneuvered into a row that served as a sort of trap with crush barriers and then they disappeared one by one through a swinging door. Behind it, a knife slit the carotid artery while pronouncing God’s name.
One sheep has always stayed with me, it stood in line and looked at me long and calmly. The next moment a tear trickled from his eye, then another, and another. His eyes got all wet. Moments later, he also disappeared through the swinging door.
smell of death
Later I read that sheep (but also cows, pigs, bees, birds, fish, etc.) can sense what awaits them. They feel the agitation in the atmosphere, the energy, they recognize the smell of death. For that reason, in Islam the knife should not be visible to the animal to be killed. But hiding the knife is not enough, the animal already knows what is hanging over its head.
I experienced something similar in Bali. One afternoon I was driving my scooter on a country road when suddenly my attention was drawn to a loud scream. I braked and when I looked back I saw a giant pot-bellied pig with a rope around its neck being pulled by a man and a woman. The animal had to cross the road, but they could barely move it, despite how the pair screamed and slapped. The animal had dug its heels into the sand and slid its butt back, all with a shriek that went through the marrow. I didn’t understand this bickering until a young lady, who was also watching, said to me:The pig knows†
A Hindu festival, it turned out; in a special courtyard across the street, the animal ritually went under the knife.
Mass slaughter
Every year around this time, outraged articles are published that agitate against the Feast of the Sacrifice. From circles of animal protectionists and lamb huggers, and from the right-wing populist corner. Horrific Islamic massacre of sheep!
I calculated this mass slaughter, which would involve approximately 56 thousand sheep in the Netherlands. Every dead soul is one too many, but if we compare this number to the numbers that are executed daily in our factory industry, about 1.8 million, we will have to rearrange our outrage.
Organic industrial chickens, calves and pigs also invariably have had a horrible life, ending up in a neat anonymous cellophane package of bacon or leg on the shelves of the Jumbo, so that almost no consumer can see the link with the once breathing and playing creature. . Then Ahmet stumbling into his house with a completely skinned sheep over his shoulder earns a little more respect. Especially if he cuts the animal into pieces with his own hands and doesn’t waste a single organ – rumen, intestines, kidneys, balls.
Very own son
On the other hand, Abraham thought he heard the voice of God and was willing to sacrifice his own son. As a gift for his obedience, he was given a sheep. Tell me, which Moroccan, Turk, Afghan or otherwise Muslim is willing to put his very own son on the chopping block for Allah and cut his own neck? Don’t believe I know of one. And if such a person does exist, then only he deserves the sheep sacrifice. The rest gets a carrot.
With all due respect to holy books, but believers also have a duty to think for themselves. Age-old traditions and rituals should always be examined and tested against the current situation.
The world of around the year zero is not the world of today. The earth is becoming exhausted and the sea level is rising faster than expected. Major floods in winter, deadly heat waves in summer. Rapid extinction of animal species, forest fires galore. Expensive fertilizers make food more and more expensive and the war instincts just keep on coming. We face an energy crisis and a refugee crisis, as the ice caps melt and tornadoes devastate half-cities and agricultural areas and food systems collapse. The science is unanimous: the (limitless) meat consumption and production is one of the biggest culprits.
Spiritual leaders
Now, if it is true that the true Muslim cares about everything that grows and flourishes on this wonderful planet created by Allah, then the planetary crisis should grieve him deeply, the spiritual leaders foremost. I am not saying that the Feast of the Sacrifice should be abolished, I am saying: let the clergy at least offer something in return. I do have a good idea: eat less meat.
Specifically, suppose that next night Angel Gabriel appears at my feet and designates me as the brand new messenger † I already have my name with me, Mohammed †, then my first message would be: stop eating meat for one month a year. And not just between sunrise and sunset (as during Ramadan, and then in the evening you can catch up with pleasure at a richly filled dinner), no: not a single meatball or cutlet on the plate for one whole uninterrupted month. So in addition to Lent, now also a worldwide Islamic Vegan month. Look, then the Feast of the Sacrifice takes on a completely different glow than the increasing antipathy that I (and many with me) now feel about it. And who knows, the Jews, Christians and Hindus will follow after that. That’s touching.
Mohammed Benzakour is a sociologist and writer.