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Question: Why do Muslims slaughter the animal in a ruthless manner by
torturing it and slowly and painfully killing it? Answer: The Islamic method of slaughtering animals, known as Zabiha
has been the object of much criticism from a large number
of people. Before I reply to the question, let me relate an incidence
about a discussion between a Sikh and a Muslim regarding
animal slaughter. Once a Sikh asked a Muslim, "Why do you slaughter the
animal painfully by cutting the throat instead of the way
we do with one stroke i.e. jhatka?" The Muslim
replied "We are brave and courageous and attack from
the front. We are marad ka baccha (macho men), you
are cowards and attack from behind". Jokes apart, one may consider
the following points, which prove that the Zabiha method
is not only humane but also scientifically the best:
Zakkaytum is a verb derived
from the root word Zakah (to purify). Its infinitive
is Tazkiyah which means purification. The Islamic
mode of slaughtering an animal requires the following conditions
to be met:
The animal has
to be slaughtered with a sharp object (knife) and in a fast
way so that the pain of slaughter is minimised.
Zabiha is an Arabic word
which means ‘slaughtered’. The ‘slaughtering’ is to be done
by cutting the throat, windpipe and the blood vessels in
the neck causing the animal’s death without cutting the
spinal cord.
The blood has to
be drained completely before the head is removed. The purpose
is to drain out most of the blood which would serve as a
good culture medium for micro organisms. The spinal cord
must not be cut because the nerve fibres to the heart could
be damaged during the process causing cardiac arrest, stagnating
the blood in the blood vessels.
Blood is a good
media of germs, bacteria, toxins, etc. Therefore the Muslim
way of slaughtering is more hygienic as most of the blood
containing germs, bacteria, toxins, etc. that are the cause
of several diseases are eliminated.
Meat slaughtered
by Islamic way remains fresh for a longer time due to deficiency
of blood in the meat as compared to other methods of slaughtering.
The swift cutting of vessels
of the neck disconnects the flow of blood to the nerve of
the brain responsible for pain. Thus the animal does not
feel pain. While dying, the animal struggles, writhers,
shakes and kicks, not due to pain, but due to the contraction
and relaxation of the muscles defecient in blood and due
to the flow of blood out of the body.
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