USA - Detroit-Area City OKs Animal Sacrifice
Residents of a Detroit-area community with a large Muslim population can sacrifice animals at home for religious reasons.
The Hamtramck council in December had voted to continue a ban on animal slaughter but reversed course, at least for religious reasons, after legal advice and objections from people who follow the Islamic faith, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said “it’s not something new or novel.”
“This is when Muslims recognize Abraham sacrificing a sheep instead of having to sacrifice his son,” Walid said, referring to the passage in the Quran and Old Testament.
Hamtramck residents will be required to notify the city, pay a fee and make their property available for inspection.
Hamtramck has a population [of] 28,000. More than half of the residents are of Yemeni or Bangladeshi descent, the Free Press said.
-apnews.com, 11 January 2023
Arno's Commentary
Wikipedia writes: “The legal aspects of ritual slaughter include the regulation of slaughterhouses, butchers, and religious personnel involved with traditional shechita (Jewish) and dhabiha (Islamic). Regulations also may extend to butchery products sold in accordance with kashrut and halal religious law. Governments regulate ritual slaughter, primarily through legislation and administrative law.”
We are living in a global world. This is evident by the different religious practices. Only a century ago, the Middle East was entirely Muslim, Europe and all its colonies were Christian, with Hinduism and Buddhism the ruling religions in Asia. That has changed drastically in our days. A Google search reveals that there are 908 Hindu temples in the USA. A study conducted in 2000 by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership identified 1,209 mosques in the USA. The follow-up poll in 2011 recorded 2,106 mosques, and in 2020 there were 2,769.
For religious people, these are alarm bells, as they see non-Christian religions expanding in the USA. However, for born-again believers, it represents an opportunity to testify of the truth of the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, who was manifested in the flesh in Israel. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate sacrifice, once and for all. His blood takes away sins from anyone at any time, eradicating the power of the evil one. Second Corinthians 5:17 proclaims: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” May we take the opportunity to proclaim, practice, and disseminate the love of Christ.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
