Women who stare at goats.

Wednesday November 17, 2010. Does this day mean anything to you, or anything to anyone in the United States? Unfortunately, apart from a few select Americans probably not. This was, as I found out after a quick Cha cha and a few seconds in the good ole’ Bible, the day that the Muslim culture celebrated Eid al-Adha. To avoid spending too much time on this subject, Eid al-Adha is the day the Muslim culture spends to remember when the prophet Abraham was allowed to spare the life of his child and slaughter a ram instead. Although, while most partakers enjoy the day, it has always been a horror fest for animal rights activists as the streets are filled with the public slaughtering of animals. NYT’s Robert Worth interviewed Amina Abaza, a local animal rights activist about the subject. “She complains that many butchers fail to abide even by Islam’s own strictures: that the animal should not be mistreated, and should not see or hear other animals being killed,” wrote Worth. I believe though, that she should not be taken seriously for even a second. In a world seen, stereotypically by the Western cultures, as a bomb-ridden terrorist infested desert, there should not be the slightest concern for how the animals are treated. Someone who worries about animal rights in the middle east is comparable to the child Jamal, from Slumdog Millionaire, worrying about whether the chicken he is eating is free range or not. There are more important things to worry about Jamal, and Mrs. Abaza. While I agree to some degree that animals should not be abused, we should all agree that a human life is of greater unparalleled value. Instead, Mrs. Abaza should be worrying about how the Islamic culture is regarded in the treatment of humans and realize that this will affect how they treat animals as well. She needs to confront the deeper problem in their culture instead of wasting her time wondering about the feelings of a sheep waiting for slaughter.