fuck! my rss feeds are down…

I finally did something that i\’ve always wanted to do for the past few yrs.. Visit a mosque on hari raya haji to witness how korban is done..

For those who have no idea what i\’m talking about, korban is sorta of a ceremony where a muslim sacrifices an animal, usually a sheep or goat in the sg context. Basically it goes back a long way when Allah wanted to test the faith of Ibrahim and ordered him to sacrifice his youngest son as a show of faith.. Ibrahim (or Abraham in Jewish context) was prepared to do so, but Allah stopped him at the last minute, allowing him to use an animal, not sure what..as a replacement.. [will update this part once i do my research, but the gist should be correct]

So today i made my way during lunch time to the mosque @ bt batok.. ar raudhah..talk about being on for this..it was raining heavily when i went, dressed appropriately in polo tee and long pants.. the front of the mosque was pretty quiet but i could definitely smell mutton..so i went to the back of the mosque. There was this long Q of ppl towards this shed. It was noisy to say the least, with the explosion of people and the chopping sound of the choppers welded by the volunteer butchers. There was this huge table where the butchers worked non-stop, chopping up the sheep into small portions to be distributed, u can see hooves all over the place, discarded.

What really hit me was this row of sheep and goats, barely moving..and i realised that their necks have already been slit.. the whole affair was pretty organised, come to think of it.

1. Volunteers would carry out the sheep or goat from the temporary holding pen, 1 guy for hind legs, 1 for front legs, 1 for body, 1 for head..
2. A man would shout out the number of the goat, so that the owner who paid about 270 dollars can come forward to witness the sacrifice. By right he\’s supposed to DIY but usually they let another man do it
3. The animal is held down on the ground, with its head over the opened-manhole, and resting on this specially constructed wooden rack
4. Once the owner comes up, the man would confirm his name, and say this to the er..executor \”Korban, silakan\” [pls proceed with the sacrifice]
5. The volunteers would start reciting a prayer to let the animal die in peace, and the executor would take a long wavy knife and slit under its neck..
6. Blood flows out, like a tap..
7. The blood flow slows to a trickle, and they stop reciting.. the animal is carried to the side, joining the row of already-sacrificed animals..
8. The blade is sharpened, and the area is hosed down with water before the next animal is brought in<

This is the disturbing part to me, I tot that by then the sheep is dead but NO. It is still alive when it\’s placed along the row..they would be kicking and struggling.. there was this goat which was particularly aggressive, even at its deathbed..kicking so hard that it nearly fell headfirst into the manhole which is a good metre away…According to the executor, they take about 5-10 mins to die

Processing of meat

1. The carcass is hung up by its hind legs
2. Via a long incision on its underbelly, the skin is removed
3. The carcass is chopped up into manageable portions and the head is disposed
4. The portions are transferred to the butcher\’s table where they are further chopped up
5. Part of it is distributed to the owner
6. Most of it would be given to welfare homes and less fortunate families; a portion are shipped back to Australia, where the sheep are originally from, to be canned n sent to third world countries as aid

Somehow by then, i realised that i\’ve overstayed my welcome. I think i wasnt very welcome for these 2 reasons:

1. It was very crowded and i was obstructing their way
2. It was unislamic for me to be there, n perhaps rude. Even though i asked permission before entering the area, and taking fotos only when i saw others doing the same, they could have allowed me to do so in the name of religious harmony Read papers that a few non-muslims MPs were @ the mosques too..heck..even the israeli envoy and his wife were @ a mosque..so yea..cross out this reasoning

Nonetheless it was a very good and sobering experience for me to finally witness this ceremony.. I do have some pics n movie clips from it, but i wun be posting here in case of any sensitivities..do msg me if u wanna take a look though… n hopefully i never offended anyone at the mosque today

Selemat Hari Raya Haji