Meat From Christians and Jews
In Surah 5:5 of the Quran, it is written: "The food of the People of the Book is lawful for you as your food is lawful for them."
However, overwhelming majority of the scholars from the Muslim world agree that this verse speaks about the Christians of Prophet Muhammad's time and say that Christian methods of slaughtering and consumption has drastically changed over time as the diet played lesser importance in the daily practice of Christians. They also point to Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 8 in the Bible which says that "Thou shall not eat of the swine nor shall you touch its dead carcasses." Matthew 15:11, though, notes, "What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” In this passage, Christ downplays the importance of dietary law and instead impeaches the incongruence in faith between the Pharisees' overt religious practice and their lack of true commitment to God. Pork and pork related products, which are forbidden in Islam, are consumed by Christians and used widely in food and food products. Kosher meats, which are consumed by Jews, are permissible if no Halal meat is available. This is due to the similarity between both methods of slaughtering and the similar principles of Kosher meat which are still observed by the orthodox Jews today.
Read more about this topic: Halal
Famous quotes containing the words meat, christians and/or jews:
“Personal columnists ... are jackals and no jackal has been known to live on grass once he had learned about meat—no matter who killed the meat for him.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“The more you mow us down, the more numerous we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.”
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“We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.”
—Bible: New Testament, Galatians 2:15-16.