Isn't a pig one of god's creatures, too?
Friday, January 30, 2009
Pigs
What's up with pigs? Pakistanis are really anti-pig. I mean, I get that Muslims don't eat pork. (And oh, how I miss it. My own personal jihad...) But Pakistanis really seem to vilify pigs even when they're not for dinner. M said he was raised to believe that you had to wash your mouth out after saying the word pig; that it would make you impure and you'd have to wash up again before your next prayer. In the Urdu kid's books we've brought from Pakistan for our son, the word for pig appears, but with a picture of a cow underneath it. They don't even want to show a picture of a pig!
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15 comments:
that's curious.
because of course the qur'an mentions pigs several times. by this logic then reading the qur'an would render ....
i believe this is a case of a culture obsessed with appearances. with the result that we often exaggerate matters to flaunt our holiness. so why make such a big deal if people do indulge in a little harmless self-righteousness?
although appearing harmless at first sight these over statements usually lead to real adverse effects in society, e.g. cruelty towards animals will be justified based on such vilification.
i find that the mirror image of this process is the glorification of our national heroes (e.g. jinnah and iqbal) to such a degree that any critical evaluation of their lives becomes impossible. they become infallible and incapable of committing mistakes. and thus we give up our right to learn from them to try to emulate their real examples.
the qur'an is rightly respected in any muslim household. but in our culture it become venerated to such an extent that it becomes almost like a talisman. rather than benefiting from the book through reading and understanding it we rest it upon the highest shelf in every room (wrapped in beautifully decorated cloth) where nobody can hope to reach it.
sigh.
When I first got pregnant I was permanently hungry. I told my Pakistani husband that the baby was a "pig" meaning like the US phrase "eats like a pig," as in, hungry all the time,
MAN! I hope he doesn't ever glare at me like that again!
i have seen very similar points of view within arab culture also...
sis i have tagged you hope you dont mind, i dont always post in your comments, but i love to come and read your blog.
http://o0ummhasan0o.blogspot.com/2009/01/tagged-by-jalpari-and-ammenah.html
I sooo hear you on this one! When I was married to my pakistani ex husband, his family would even scratch pigs paintings from the baby bottles etc. I used to say to them what you said here, that God created also the pigs, so what was the big deal, just don't eat it and forget about it!
hahahaha this is sooo true! i grew up in a paki community and when we mentioned pigs, esp in the masjid they would be terrified to say it and would say GIP (pig backwards) instead, and even that was bad. of course we dont eat their meat, but that doesnt make them any less of a creature of Allah!
Didn't know where to post this. It sure gives a twist on things;
http://newshopper.sulekha.com/newsitem/2009/02/three-women-abduct-rape-man-in-karachi.htm
probably because they're dumb animals, dumb enough to eat their own excrement (no other animal does that) and probably one of the reasons why its been made haram for us
i see what you mean. washing the mouths after saying the word 'pig' is a little extreme though - haven't heard that one before when i was growing up. but it took inordinate amount of effort from my side to see beauty in little piglets and pups after all the dogma instilled in me from the childhood - bacon still doesn't taste good in my mouth for that reason :)
its jus one of those sad sad things that hav been extra polated without rhyme and reason !!!
btw... interestin blog :)
loving your blog too.. love ur way of expressing urself
Me..marreid to an arab... I once called him a pig..for eating like one...lol BIG MISTAKE...
for me... pigs are smart...and dumb at same time. they are easily trained..and like any animal, can be trained to be good :)
Wouldn't anyone love to roll around in mud once ina while?
lol
of course there's nothing wrong with pigs. Living in Pakistan all my life, I've experienced the same thing. Pakistani's actually do *hate* pigs, which is just wrong. Pigs are Allah's creation too. Just because Muslims are not allowed to eat pigs doesnt mean we should shun them, or vilify them. By that reasoning we should hate horses too. But how many Arabs would shun their race-horses? Not a lot I bet.
This post cracked me up - we Pakis do get crazy when it comes to pigs! :)
But, as long as it doesn't cross that line into mean behavior toward animals or people, it just makes my gora husband & I shake our heads, smile & groan.
I wrote a post about this awhile ago too - http://rickshawdiaries.wordpress.com/2006/02/17/of-piglets-love-hounds/
Warmly,
Baraka
We used to say P. I. G. believing that would lessen the sin somehow! :)
http://jjutol.blogspot.com/
I wonder what they subsitute the pig with in 'Old McDonald had a farm' ? interesting.
LOL- Just the other day, my bf and I came to a red light on a multilane street here in Toronto. Despite the fact that we were in an urban area, we ended up sitting beside a huge pig tractor trailer. The pigs were oinking and moving around and my bf was noticably unnerved. He said when his parents ended up being that close to pigs, they'd get really upset and worried. I find it all so comical... eating the flesh of swine is Haram... yes but the poor animals themselves are not Haram. I mean, come on, everything was put on earth for a reason right? haha. I'm still looking for positive uses of pigs that don't involve human ingestion to calm my poor bf's fears, haha.
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