complicated. Pork is forbidden in Islam as in Judaism, but no
other meats, except birds of prey and carnivorous animals, are
forbidden. Food sacrifi ced to pagan idols is also forbidden, as
it is in Christianity. There is also the blood taboo: Animals must
be ritually slaughtered, painlessly, as a prayer is said over them,
basically thanking the animal for giving its life to sustain humans. What is unique, however, is the prohibition against alcohol. The
prohibition is hard to explain, but presumably, it’s diffi cult to focus
on prayer when you’re tipsy. Not all Muslim countries strictly
observe this, though. In some regions, they still grew grapes for
wine, so there was no strict enforcement by destroying vineyards,
but devout Muslims were supposed to abstain. There are also fasts in Islam that are a bit more rigorous than fasts in
Judaism. Islamic fasts are not just periods of abstention from meat,
as in Christianity. The devout Muslim abstains from all food and
drink during daylight hours during the entire month of Ramadan,During the month of Ramadan, devout Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset
each day.
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