Residents of a Detroit-area City have voted to allow animal sacrifices for religious purposes.
On Tuesday, The Hamtramck City Council, whose members are all Muslims, approved the practice 3-2.
After legal advice and objections from Muslim residents, the matter was revisited this month after a vote was postponed in December.
“If somebody wants to do it, they have a right to do their practice,” Council Member Mohammed Hassan said.
As part of the Eid al-Adha holiday, Muslims often slaughter animals, typically goats or sheep, and share the meat with family, friends, and the poor.
“It’s not something new or novel,” explained Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“This is when Muslims recognize Abraham sacrificing a sheep instead of having to sacrifice his son,” Walid said, in reference to the Quran and Old Testament passage.
Residents in Hamtramck will need to give the city notice, pay a fee, and make their property available for inspection.
How backwards! How is someone’s religious beliefs more important than am animals life??? The world is trying to focus on climate change and healing our broken planet but it’s ok for an animal to be raised only to be slaughtered for a belief? How sad and backwards.