Please don’t kill my goat
I have always loved this Eid for the chance to make new goat friends. What I don't like is blood in my streets.
My neighbours just bought these three cute little goats home, one each for their three little kids. They probably did that so the kids wouldn’t fight with each other while taking their new pets for evening walks, daily feeding, petting and other such childhood goodness which occurs at this time of the year.
I have always loved this Eid for the chance to make new goat friends. What I don’t like about this Eid is when we proceed to manhandle those gentle creatures, force them to the ground, watch our elders slit the throats of our new companions, string them up, skin them, bleed them dry, cook them and serve their innards fresh for dinner all on the same day.
There is a reason why the act of butchery has been increasingly mechanized and hidden from society. Necessary evil though it is, there is absolutely no need for huge swathes of society to learn to murder a living creature, much less an intelligent creature, and worse, one you have kept and raised in your own home.
There is no need to take a symbolic gesture to such extremes in a world that is much changed from the times when this form of sacrifice was the norm. It is unhealthy for young children, and adults to experience (and perpetuate) violence on an animal.
I’m not even going to get into the nitty gritty of the roots of this ritual and why or why not it can or cannot, evolve into something less brutal. Google knows more than I do on that subject. I’m not going to stamp on it by citing the occasional case of men and women suffering from psychosis who proceed to slaughter their children in the name of God.
I am also not going to talk about how the psychological impact of seeing and inflicting this form of violence on a living creature may or may not be a causal factor behind a society’s desensitization to violence; an individual’s openness to committing further acts of violence; the confusion in a young, developing brain about what is morally right and wrong when it comes to killing; how there is a link between serial killers and a tendency towards torturing and murdering animals at a young age.
No the issue is much, much simpler than all the above if we just wake up from our collective slumber and thinly veiled justifications (of which I expect many in the comments) for an act of terror. Yes I said terror, yes I do eat meat, and yes I think there is little justification for hypocrisy, but must we celebrate it? Venerate it? Call it a wondrous thing?
I’m sorry. I just don’t want my streets running red anymore.
I have always loved this Eid for the chance to make new goat friends. What I don’t like about this Eid is when we proceed to manhandle those gentle creatures, force them to the ground, watch our elders slit the throats of our new companions, string them up, skin them, bleed them dry, cook them and serve their innards fresh for dinner all on the same day.
When will we move beyond this barbaric, arcane ritual?
There is a reason why the act of butchery has been increasingly mechanized and hidden from society. Necessary evil though it is, there is absolutely no need for huge swathes of society to learn to murder a living creature, much less an intelligent creature, and worse, one you have kept and raised in your own home.
There is no need to take a symbolic gesture to such extremes in a world that is much changed from the times when this form of sacrifice was the norm. It is unhealthy for young children, and adults to experience (and perpetuate) violence on an animal.
I’m not even going to get into the nitty gritty of the roots of this ritual and why or why not it can or cannot, evolve into something less brutal. Google knows more than I do on that subject. I’m not going to stamp on it by citing the occasional case of men and women suffering from psychosis who proceed to slaughter their children in the name of God.
I am also not going to talk about how the psychological impact of seeing and inflicting this form of violence on a living creature may or may not be a causal factor behind a society’s desensitization to violence; an individual’s openness to committing further acts of violence; the confusion in a young, developing brain about what is morally right and wrong when it comes to killing; how there is a link between serial killers and a tendency towards torturing and murdering animals at a young age.
No the issue is much, much simpler than all the above if we just wake up from our collective slumber and thinly veiled justifications (of which I expect many in the comments) for an act of terror. Yes I said terror, yes I do eat meat, and yes I think there is little justification for hypocrisy, but must we celebrate it? Venerate it? Call it a wondrous thing?
I’m sorry. I just don’t want my streets running red anymore.