Muslims and meat eaters have much in common

I don't understand posts like this. This blogger and his readers apparently think that the ritual sacrifice of animals that accompanies the Islamic holy days of Eid somehow proves the savagery of Muslims in general. Since the blog shows the usual wingnut commitment to open debate by confining comments to registered users, I'll answer it here instead.

Commenter Amy P. is correct in noting that ritual animal slaughter has deep roots in the Christian tradition and the fact that we don't practice it in our churches doesn't change the fact that the Christians' most holy book calls for the practice. In fact in some cases, our Christian God called for human sacrifice as well. And it's not like we're not still slaughtering animals here - we've simply outsourced the work from priests to commercial butchers.

And as for the how much more civilized we are in the process of slaughter -- well -- it doesn't sound or look that much different to me. Just because we purchase the results of the process neatly packaged in unrecognizable parts in our grocery stores doesn't mean we're not complicit in the necessarily cruel slaughter it takes to get it to market. So unless these guys at Sweetness and Light are all vegetarians, (and by the way I'm not one either), they should look into their own crock pots before they call the Muslim's kettle black.