Islam and slaughtering of animals

"Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, I respect all religions and I treat all my patients equally irrespective of what religion they profess. Who am I to stop anybody from eating beef or any other meat? We cardiologists are there to prevent as well as cure heart disease. All readers I am sure will agree with me that it is useless trying to put out fires after they have started."


by D. P. Atukorala

(September 04, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I refer to the replies to my article titled "Misconceptions about slaughtering of animals in Islam" appearing in the media during the last few days. In one of the articles written by a Muslim lady doctor sometime back, she has said:

(a) "It is the bounden duty of Muslims to slaughter animals and feed the poor during Haj. Even at other times, it is considered a highly meritorious act to feed the poor with meat."

(b) "All Muslims will eat meat. All correspondents should be cautious and weigh their words carefully when they write articles to esteemed newspapers, which are read by a large number of educated readers."

When a medical doctor writes such articles he or she should be scientific and should not mislead the reading public, as all medical doctors are scientists. The expression "bounden duty of all Muslims to slaughter animals" gives the impression to the reading public that the slaughter of animals has been decreed to be compulsory for Muslims and that all Muslims or a large number of them are slaughterers of animals during Haj.

As far as I am aware, only a very few Muslims slaughter animals during Haj. I have been treating a large number of Muslims during the last 44 years and many of them happen to be rich Muslims. I have associated with a significant number of rich Muslims and I have not yet come across a single Muslim gentleman or a Muslim lady, or any of my Muslims patients who to my knowledge slaughter animals.

When the good lady doctor says, "the Muslims will always eat meat" the readers are made to understand that the majority of Muslims eat meat. This is an incorrect statement. I know of a significant number of Muslims who do not consume meat. I have also come across a few Muslims who are vegetarians. A large number of my Muslim patients do not eat red meat, but the majority of them eat chicken and fish. Majority of my Muslim patients are semi vegetarians. One of the past presidents of India who was a Muslim was said to be vegetarian.

For health reasons, I advise all my patients and others not to eat red meat (beef, mutton, lamb and pork). A significant number of my patients happen to be vegetarians.

I am happy to say that most of my cardiac patients have shown a marked improvement in their cardiovascular condition and this has been confirmed by repeating their exercise E. C. G. (Stress Tests) before and after the patients changed over to a vegetarian diet. The anti-anginal drug dosage could be reduced and some of these vegetarian patients are free of angina and as a result I was able to avoid cardiac surgery in quite a lot of them.

I refer only a very few of my angina patients for P.T.V.A (Angioplasty) or coronary artery bypass surgery (C.A.B.G), thanks to changing their diet and making other lifestyle changes.

Curing heart disease by changing the diet and making other life-style changes is now adopted in many parts of the world. The world famous cardiologist Dr. Dean Ormish M.D., who is the personal physician to President Clinton and who was also the advisor on nutrition to the White House, has published what the New York Times described as a best seller entitled Reversing Heart Disease. His original work has appeared in all the famous medical journals such as The Lancet, Circulation, Journal of the American Medical Association, and American Journal of Cardiology.

Dr. Dean Ormish subjected all his heart patients to coronary angiography before making them vegetarians and repeated the angiograms about one year after the change in diet and lifestyle, and proved to the medical world that the coronary artery blocks were less serious and the blocks due to atheroma had disappeared in some of them. All the coronary angiograms had improved without the use of cardiac drugs,

Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, I respect all religions and I treat all my patients equally irrespective of what religion they profess. Who am I to stop anybody from eating beef or any other meat?

We cardiologists are there to prevent as well as cure heart disease. All readers I am sure will agree with me that it is useless trying to put out fires after they have started.

It has been proved beyond doubt that by changing over to a vegetarian diet, it is possible to reduce the incidence of heart disease (heart attacks), hypertension, most cancers, kidney disease, diabetes, strokes, obesity hyperlipidaemia (high cholesterol states), some of the viral, bacterial infections especially food poisoning, and certain diseases due to stress.

Nobody has developed any incurable diseases and nobody has died by avoiding beef, mutton or any other meat. Man can live longer and in good health on a vegetarian diet and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) absence of animal products from the diet is the most effective way to reduce heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke.

In conclusion, I would emphasise that all Muslims are not meat eaters and only a few of them are slaughterers of animals. I fully agree with the Muslim lady doctor that feeding the poor is a highly meritorious deed and this is so according to all world religions.
- Sri Lanka Guardian