The Problem with Pork

Bismillah ir-rahman ir-raheem

Assalaam alaikum!

So, first of all, Ramadan Mubarak!! For those who are following the Makkah sighting of the moon, today is the first day of Ramadan, alhamdulillah!! This is the best time of year because it is during this month only that Shaytan is chained up and he can not make his waswasas (whispers) in our ears. Insha'Allah, I would love to do a post about Ramadan sometime this month, but I am, for now, going to transfer an entry from my old blog, insha'Allah.

A long time ago when I first started this blog I got a question on Facebook from someone curious about pork/pigs in Islam:"I heard something about if you come into contact with pig, you're not allowed into heaven? [R]umor or fact?" (Natalia)
Thank you for your question, Natalia. I have spent a fair amount of time researching your question and I can pretty much definitively answer: it is a rumour.
I have heard this rumour before, though, when I was reading the diary of a woman from Saudi Arabia. My guess is that it is a cultural thing (as many things are, unfortunately). It is customary to wash oneself after having come into contact with swine (especially before prayer--I'll talk about cleanliness another time), but nowhere in Hadith or the Qur'an (or the Bible, for that matter) could I find anything remotely hinting towards eternal damnation for simply touching a pig.

However, as with Mosaic Law, the flesh of swine is forbidden in Islam. Many Christians seem to think that in Mark 7:18-19, Jesus (AS) made all food lawful: "'Are you so dull?' he asked. 'Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.'" (Mark 7:18-19 NIV).
To be fair, I can see why the Christian would believe this. That does seem to be what he (AS) is saying. Of course, in Islam we believe otherwise because we believe Jesus (AS) was a prophet to the Jews and he (AS) therefore MUST have adhered to Mosaic Law (ie: the Law of Moses (AS)). In fact, it is actually now kind of in vogue for Christians to keep... not kosher, per se, but kosher-ish. Google "What Would Jesus Eat?" and you will see--it's a health book of some sort, and there's also a "What Would Jesus Eat" cookbook. Very cool.

What do Muslims think that Jesus (AS) was saying in Mark 7:18-19? Well, I'm not sure, though I do have a few unprofessional opinions. One possibility is that Jesus (AS) didn't even ever say such a thing, or that the original meaning of what he (AS) said has been long lost. With so many versions of the Bible, and with the number of times it has been translated, translated again, again, again, and... once more, there's no telling what the original text said. If you don't believe me, go to biblegateway.com and look up 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (famous for weddings, right?) once in the King James version and once in the New International Version. It's craziness.

Another possibility would be that Jesus (AS) was simply saying that there are more important things that worrying about what you eat. The Qur'an affirms that! There are many times the Qur'an forbids the consumption of pork (Surat-ul-baqara, ayat 173; Surat-ul-maa'idah, ayat 3; and Surat-ul-an'aam, ayat 145--possibly more), however in an emergency (eg: no other food available), it is permissible to eat food that is normally forbidden (Surat-un-nahl, ayat 115 among others).   

More compelling to many Christians, however, might be Jesus' (AS) quote from the Bible found in Matthew: "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." (Matthew 5:17). To me, that says that Jesus' (AS) "dying on the cross" (another topic to be addressed in a later blog, insha'Allah) did not all of a sudden excuse his (AS) followers from following Mosaic Laws. Well, well. 

There are also health issues with pork. You see, during my university's Islam Awareness Week (a huge success, by the way, masha'Allah), one young man can up to me and told me that he liked everything about Islam and it sounded like a very good religion to him (yay!), but he thought the rules about not eating pork were archaic. At the time I was under pressure, so I could only stutter out that we do not eat pork because the Qur'an forbids it (which is very true). 

I did get the opportunity to tell him a little something else a few days later. You see, my father-in-law spent 20 years of his life as a butcher, so he knows what he's talking about. He said the way swine would have been slaughtered back in the day is actually more sanitary than how it is done now (halal slaughtering will also be addressed in a future entry, FYI, insha'Allah). In a slaughtering plant, there is a high risk of contamination with all the different animals coming in all the time... some of them diseased. However, in slaughtering an animal outside (as it would have been done) there is sufficient room to ensure that meat from separate animals does not mixed. If one diseased swine is slaughtered, then few people will become ill, instead of thousands.

Well. I have news for you, mister likes-to-eat-bacon guy: I've been doing some research. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture tells us that swine are a significant if not primary factor in giving us meek humans Human Yersinosis. What is this disease? Well, according to the medical dictionary at thefreedictionary.com, "Yersinia [the bacteria causing human yersinosis] produces several different types of disease. The most common form is a short-lived inflammation of the intestine known as enterocolitis. Most often the very end of the small intestine is involved, an area known as the terminal ileum. The result is gastroenteritis, with cramping abdominal pain, fever, and diarrhea. Diarrhea generally continues for two weeks or so, but can go on for many months. Up to 40% of patients also experience nausea and vomiting; and in one-third, inflammation of the intestine leads to bleeding." Intestinal bleeding. Gross. According to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture 40% of swine tested in 80 different farms tested positive for this disease.

Trichinosis is the other oft-cited health concern with pork. It isn't overly common, but it comes from eating pork infected with the larvae of a certain species of roundworm. Yuck yuck yuck. Yuck yuck. Medicinenet.com says that 90-95% of people infected with trichinosis have mild or no symptoms... this doesn't really comfort me all that much because if 90% of people have no symptoms then that is waaaay more pork with roundworms in it than I'd like to even think about. Then when there are complications with the disease, it can cause such things as anxiety; lung bleeding; dyspepsia; and in 10-14% of reported cases, the worms enter the nervous system, which can be fatal. It has been estimated that one in six consumers of pork in the US and Canada have been infected with trichinosis.

That means ringworms... in your body...

So! Does this mean we should go out and kill all pigs and burn them??????

No. The Qur'an teaches us that we must be kind to animals, and it would not be very kind to kill an animal that is not attacking us (actively) and is not being consumed.

Pigs do have their uses. Oh yes. I said it. For example, in Israel (yes, Israel--Jews don't eat pork either!) swine are used to sniff for bombs (I saw this story on BBC--look on their archives). Apparently, they're easier to train than dogs. Also, I was talking to a friend today who said that swine used to be used in his school to sniff for drugs... and apparently they found a bunch behind a drinking fountain.

If pigs were nothing but bad, Allah subhanah wa ta'ala would not have put them on this earth. We should not eat them, but they have other uses. Please be kind to pigs--you won't go to hell for it.