Muslims and Meat‐Eating

Vegetarianism, Gender, and Identity

Bibliographic Data

ID14760720
AuthorsKecia Ali (corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume43
Issue2
Pages268-288
Publication date2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religious Ethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0384-9694 • E-ISSN: 1467-9795
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jore.12097
OpenAlexW1597501683
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited28

Religious thinking, including among M uslims, connects food and sex, as well as women and animals; both food practices and gender norms are significant for communal identity and boundary construction. Female bodies (properly covered) and animal bodies (properly slaughtered) serve as potent signifiers of M uslim identity, as patriarchal thought sustains the hierarchical cosmologies that affirm male dominance in family and society and allow humans to view animals as legitimately subject to human violence. I argue that M uslims in the industrialized W est—especially those concerned with gender justice—ought to be vegetarians and that feminist ethics provides underutilized resources for M uslim thinking about ethics generally and food ethics in particular. Much contemporary M uslim thought about meat is at least as concerned with demonstrating the primacy of “ I slamic” identity as with general questions about the formation of virtuous subjects and the development of good societies. This defensive concern with religious authenticity poses a stumbling block to richer thinking. Engagement with non‐ I slamic (though not “un‐ I slamic”) ethics provides a model for productive dialogue and engagement among parties who disagree about basic presumptions but agree on desirable outcomes, including the development of individuals' ethical sensibilities and the construction of societies conducive to human flourishing

Aesthetics · Dominance (genetics · Economic Justice · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Feminist ethics · Flourishing · Identity (music · Political science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Gender Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Halal products and consumer behavior · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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