Altmuslim has a really interesting piece by Jalees Rehman on the culture of disgust towards all things pork in Muslim culture. He notes, “I have virtually never seen anybody who refers to himself or herself as a Muslim ever eat pork. But what is most puzzling, however, is that this simple dietary law has lead to a whole culture of disgust, whereas other Islamic laws and Qur’anic prescriptions have not. One is much more likely to encounter a Muslim who drinks alcohol, commits adultery or collects interest on his loans than one who eats a bacon sandwich.”
One reason for such revulsion, he believes, is the need and desire to “feel Muslim” especially in non-Muslim majority countries. Avoiding pork is an easy way to identify with Islam that doesn’t necessarily bring significant hardship to someone.
He concludes, “Wouldn’t it be better if Muslims felt a porkophobia-like revulsion when encountering race and gender-based discrimination, domestic abuse, poverty or social injustice?”
Read the whole thing.
Hi, Dustin
Long time. Hope you and yours are doing well.
So true, so true. In a similar vein, I wish more of our fellow citizens who are up in arms over, say, the “tyranny” of being required to buy health insurance or the idea of gay marriage would exhibit comparable wrath over the scandalously un-Christian lot of this nation’s growing ranks of poor (many of whom are children). And I wish more Arabs in the Persian Gulf felt similar revulsion at the site of their laborers’ awful working and living conditions. And so on.
What we’re talking about is a deep-seated taboos, of course. I suspect the intense physical reaction to the thought of eating pork is cognitively akin to that most Americans would have to the idea of accidentally eating human flesh, or engaging in incestuous behavior. Such taboos aren’t easy to consciously instill, but they’re obviously incredibly powerful and when harnessed responsibly can do a lot of good.
They can and do change, though. A century ago, I think many Jews would’ve had the same reaction to lobster.
The interesting question is whether they can be engineered, and without doing crazy, unethical experiments a la B.F. Skinner.
Svend,
I think you’re right about describing the aversion to pork by Muslims like the aversion an American would have at eating human flesh. I’ve always known that my Muslim friends don’t eat pork, but once I was at Fat Tuesdays with a group of Arabs. One of them asked for a chicken sandwich that normally comes with bacon. He asked that the bacon not be included. When it arrived he dug under the cheese and pulled out the bacon. One of the guys from Jordan was sitting across the table and when he saw the bacon screamed and jumped back. It was as if he had pulled a dead rat off the chicken. That was when I more fully appreciated the way many Muslims feel about pork.
I think another factor in all of this is that there are some sins that are more easily avoided (i.e. eating pork for Muslims or homosexuality for most of us). We then emphasize these sins because we are so good at not committing them (and thus feel really good about how good we are), but then completely ignore gluttony, gossip, slander, lying, etc.