Religious Discrimination and the Killing of Egypt's Pigs (Part 2)

Please see part 1 of Kelly's exploration of this topic, "Egypt's Pigs: Beaten, Stoned, and Burned Alive (Part 1)", as well. -S. Ernst

Egypt is predominantly Muslim, with an estimated 85-90% of Egyptians practicing Islam. In contrast, about 9% of the country's population is comprised of Coptic Christians. In nations with such a power imbalance - where new legislation must conform to the religious majority's personal beliefs - those who belong to minority faiths are particularly vulnerable to discrimination.

Indeed, as the consumption of "pork" is prohibited by Islamic religious doctrine (and pigs are reviled as dirty and foul animals*), virtually all of Egypt's pig farmers are Coptic Christians. As we saw in Part 1, raising pigs for human consumption is their livelihood.

Obviously, a mass of animals, crammed into deficient housing and subsisting on garbage, constitutes a public health risk in and of itself. The Egyptian government's stated "public health" reasons might seem plausible, had they not initially cited "swine flu" as the overriding concern. Authorities promise that the "culls" aren't the end of pig farming, but rather a new beginning: with the nation's existing pig population gone, the government can relocate the farming operations to larger, less urban areas. Even so, Egypt's Coptic Christians remain skeptical - and with good reason.

Take, for example, the irrational and disproportionate treatment they (or their pigs, rather) received after the "culls" were announced:

Despite the fact that there have been no swine flu cases in Egypt, the general public is in a panic over the virus. On May 6, the popular TV talk show El-Beit Beitak aired a video of locals in the Abu Rawash district near Haram hurling stones at pigs and trying to run them over with their vehicles. Reportedly, the residents became alarmed after seeing some live and dead pigs on the road, believed to have fallen off trucks while being transported, and rumors quickly spread that the animals were infected with the virus.

While an exhaustive discussion of religious discrimination in Egypt is beyond the scope of this post, Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department have more. Suffice to say, Egypt's record on human rights - including those of religious minorities - is spotty at best.

Certainly, the driving force behind Egypt's pig "culls" is speciesism; if not for speciesism, Egyptian pigs would not be raised for food and forced to reside in urban slums - quite literally "on the bottom of the shitpile" - let alone become the target of cruel and needless "culls."

That said, religious discrimination directed at Coptic Christians by the country's Muslim majority may very well be adding to the pigs' suffering. Though the slaughter of animals for food is never a "humane" act (at best, it's a matter of survival), being tossed alive into a pit with hundreds of one's friends and relatives, doused in chemicals and set on fire seems an especially horrific way to go.

Aside from the mass killings, religious discrimination may also be a factor in the pigs' pitiable living conditions. Far from grazing in an idyllic pastoral setting, the pigs reside in houses (!) and subsist on waste - the only feed their poverty-stricken "owners" can afford. As the majority of Egypt's population is not Coptic Christian and does not consume pork - abhors it, in fact - the government has little impetus to improve the farmers' (and pigs') living conditions.

In this case, both the pigs and their "owners" are the victims of religious discrimination (a cruel irony, as pigs have no religion); the pigs' suffering, however, is compounded further by speciesism.

Likewise, the pigs' situation is unique in that they fall victim to two forms of religious discrimination. On one level, pigs as a species are discriminated against: pigs are viewed as unclean, foul animals. While this might seem to be a net positive - inasmuch as such beliefs prohibit the consumption of pigs - pigs are hardly afforded any special protections, either (as is illustrated by the pig culls). Oddly, pigs are also persecuted as the "property" of a religious minority. However, unlike other forms of property that may be damaged, pigs are sentient: they can think, feel and suffer.

This story also demonstrates how one can be at once a victim and an oppressor: in their relationship with the country's Muslim majority, Coptic Christians are a marginalized group; but in relation to non-human animals, they are free to dominate and exploit at will.

Looking towards the future, the simplest thing you can do to help prevent similar "culls" is go vegan. Intensive factory farming is the driving force behind animal-borne pathogens, whether H5N1 (bird flu) or H1N1 (swine flu).

Of course, a little religious tolerance and secularism go a long way, too!

* I should note that, as with all of the world's holy books, the Koran is open to interpretation. I don't mean to suggest that all Muslims subscribe to this belief.

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Photo: AP/Nasser Nouri