Challenge to Islamic laws that save wild boar's bacon
The Guardian
September 6, 1999
Iranian officials are asking senior clerics for permission to hunt wild
boar and export its meat, even though the animals are considered haram,
or impure, by Muslims.
Hunting, eating and trading the meat are forbidden under Islamic law,
but officials are concerned that the boar are destroying crops and contaminating
livestock.
The newspaper Abrar-e Eqtesad yesterday quoted the governor of the city
of Abadan in the country's south-west as saying that the advice of a number
of senior clerics had been sought.
"Last year a large number of these animals entered our land and
contaminated livestock in this region," he said. "We have asked
senior clerics to see if it is pure to hunt and export their meat."
He said that up to a million boar were roaming the date palm groves
around Abadan.
The agriculture minister, Issa Kalantari, was quoted as saying that
wild boar were the "number one enemy" of the trees in the area.
He added that the country's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, had allowed the hunting of wild boar and the sale of its meat
to religious minorities on condition that the money raised was used to
pay for the cost of the bullets used to kill the animals. Reuters
Links
