Source: Huffingtonpost.com

By Dr. Faheem Younus, Muslim, professor, doctor and philanthropist

I was in high school when my parents bought a goat in 1984, Pakistan. I named it, fed it, walked it, and then within a week, witnessed it getting slaughtered. It was a heart-wrenching experience at Eid-ul-Adha, a major Islamic holiday which honors Prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son for God. The incident taught me a lesson: Be ready to sacrifice your desires to earn God’s pleasure.

But 30 years later, some in the West charge Muslims with animal cruelty for committing the same act. Since affording Muslims will be sacrificing an animal on Eid-ul-Adha this weekend, it’s time to answer the top seven charges of animal cruelty against them.

1. Muslims don’t care about animal cruelty.

Get to know Prophet Muhammad, who in the savage society of 7th century Arabia, prohibited the rampant practices of cutting a live camel’s hump, branding an animal’s face, wrongly caging a bird, or clipping a horse’s forelock. In fact, the Prophet even cared for the animal’s feelings. His companion narrated: “Once we were on a journey and during the Prophet’s absence, as we captured two chicks of a bird, their mother started circling above us, beating her wings in grief. When the Prophet returned, he inquired, ‘Who has hurt the feelings of this bird?’ and commanded us to return the chicks to her.”

2. Slaughtering an animal is an undercover attempt to impose Sharia!

Now that’s another straw man argument. By slaughtering an animal, American Muslims are actually obeying the 1958 Humane Slaughter Act which allows, “…slaughtering in accordance with the ritual requirements of the Jewish faith or any other religious faith that prescribes a method of slaughter whereby the animal suffers loss of consciousness by the simultaneous and instantaneous severance of the carotid arteries with a sharp instrument and handling.” Why is the Jewish practice of slaughtering animals not an undercover attempt to impose Halakhah, the Jewish Law?

3. The West just has a much higher regard for animal rights as compared to Muslims.

By the way, millions of Muslims are also Westerners. But let’s get back to the point. Explain why 1,880 cases of animal cruelty were reported in the U.S. media just in 2007? Why over 100 million animals perish in U.S. laboratories for …read more at huffingtonpost.com