Chook Me!

Why isn't poultry banned by Judaism/Islam if health is the reason for banning them? And why not ban all meat?

No meat is without its problems, and it seems that far more people get food poisoning from chicken than from pork. Whether this is true or not, badly cooked chicken can make you very very ill. Why hasn't Islam banned chickens? Also, many human diseases originate from birds, all forms of human influenza originate from bird forms. Bird flu is currently a concern for some Muslim countries, Indonesia, for example. People in these countries would be keeping chickens in very similar conditions to the early Islamic days. You can't blame modern farming for this. Why are pigs singled out, surely if avoiding diseases is the prime motivation for religious proscription, vegetarianism would be enforced, like it is in some religions. Donner kebabs, which are Turkish in origin and are theoretically acceptable for Muslim consumption, are one of the least healthy talkaway foods you can get in the UK both in terms of the quality of the food and the diseases they contain. Why doesn't Islam or Judaism ban all meat? And why doesn't Islam ban prawns/shrimp in the same unambiguous way that it bans pork? Plenty of nasty bugs in that seafood and plenty of confusion about whether they can be eaten or not. This doesn't explain why Donner Kebabs are one of the worst possible things that you can eat. They are usually Halal, but that by no means makes them healthy; the meat is terrible, full of fact and heavily laden with microbes. Allah overlooked this one.

Public Comments

1. Only Four Meats Prohibited "Animals that die of themselves" Defined [5:3] Prohibited for you are animals that die of themselves, blood, the meat of pigs, and animals dedicated to other than GOD. (Animals that die of themselves include those) strangled, struck with an object, fallen from a height, gored, attacked by a wild animal - unless you save your animal before it dies - and animals sacrificed on altars. Also prohibited is dividing the meat through a game of chance; this is an abomination. Today, the disbelievers have given up concerning (the eradication of) your religion; do not fear them and fear Me instead. Today, I have completed your religion, perfected My blessing upon you, and I have decreed Islam as the religion for you. If one is forced by famine (to eat prohibited food), without being deliberately sinful, then GOD is Forgiver, Merciful.
2. Yes, let us band together and go on a murderous rampage of all things vegetable instead
3. What about wearing mixed fibre, what is unhealthy about that?
4. I'm no expert, but swine are considered unclean because of their affinity for dirt and mud. They're also omnivorous, which probably adds to the bias against eating them, not to mention swine are considered to be similar to humans biologically. It doesn't make sense in the modern world, but old edicts are hard to break.
5. Islam does ban shrimp, and all other shellfish. and back then, Vegetarians would have died in a few months because they wouldn't have gotten everything they needed from what they had. And then there's the fact that no "new" prophets have came up and banned any meat. Also, Turducken is just to delicious to pass up.
6. first answer is right Allah(SWT) knows best
7. Chicken is usually haraam these days for muslims because from shops they are slaughtered by machiene and mixed with properly or not properly slaughted and also the chicken gets gassed and can die before the blade cuts the throat Many muslims(practicing) avoid chicken because not 100% if it has been slaughtered properly. Imam Hanifi says prawns and shrimp is better not to be eaten because he was from the middle of the dessert and thought they look like bugs and also people who are eat them as natural food is ok Imam Shafi was near the sea and said this is halal We avoid pig because even when cooked tape worm and other diseases are still imbeded into the flesh and skin of the animal there are many reasons why pig is haraam but i am no islamic scholar to tell you them all. Also we cannot eat animals that eat flesh.
8. For years, meat was unpopular within the health industry after it was found to contain fats that potentially cause heart disease and obesity, and a structure that requires a longer digestive time and causes constipation and increased body toxicity. However, many experts have now concluded that some vitamins and minerals can only be found sufficiently in meat products, and that most vegetarians will become deficient in these nutrients over time. Hence, a recent article in Prevention magazine asks, “Does this latest swing back to red meat mean that we’re heading straight for imminent health disaster?” Their answer was, “Not at all. In moderation, lean meats can provide significant health benefits, from preventing vitamin and mineral deficiencies and boosting immunity to building stronger blood.” In fact, meat does provide many health benefits. Dr. Susan Kleiner, R.D, PhD. and owner of High Performance Nutrition in Mercer Island, Washington says, “People read reports that red meat causes cancer and heart disease so they think they have to stop eating meat. What they don’t realize is that people in these studies eat more than ten ounces a day. Eating three to five ounces a day is considered quite healthful.” Eating of pork can cause no less than seventy different types of diseases. A person can have various helminthes like roundworm, pinworm, hookworm, etc. One of the most dangerous is Taenia Solium, which is in lay man’s terminology called tapeworm. It harbours in the intestine and is very long. Its ova i.e. eggs, enter the blood stream and can reach almost all the organs of the body. If it enters the brain it can cause memory loss. If it enters the heart it can cause heart attack, if it enters the eye it can cause blindness, if it enters the liver it can cause liver damage. It can damage almost all the organs of the body. Another dangerous helminthes is Trichura Tichurasis. A common misconception about pork is that if it is cooked well, these ova die. In a research project undertaken in America, it was found that out of twenty-four people suffering from Trichura Tichurasis, twenty two had cooked the pork very well. This indicates that the ova present in the pork do not die under normal cooking temperature. Pork has very little muscle building material and contains excess of fat. This fat gets deposited in the vessels and can cause hypertension and heart attack. It is not surprising that over 50% of Americans suffer from hypertension. The pig is one of the filthiest animals on earth. It lives and thrives on muck, faeces and dirt. It is the best scavenger that I know that God has produced. In the villages they don’t have modern toilets and the villagers excrete in the open air. Very often excreta is cleared by pigs. Some may argue that in advanced countries like Australia, pigs are bred in very clean and hygienic conditions. Even in these hygienic conditions the pigs are kept together in sties. No matter how hard you try to keep them clean they are filthy by nature. They eat and enjoy their own as well as their neighbour’s excreta.
9. answer: possibly because health wasn't the only reason G=d/Allah banned His followers from consuming pork. Pork was seen as a rich food, an indulgence and very much center of pagan feasts. By condemning exotic or rich foods, Jews were focused on G-d, not self-indulgence.