When I celebrated the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice last week, I didn't tell anything about the controversial ritual of slaughtering animals.
The ritual is actually not a must, according to Islam. However, I believe that it is compatible with the Islamic creed, as long as you don't eat the meat of the animal, but distribute all of it to the poor. Unfortunately, many Muslims don't get the symbolic and the functional good in this ritual and do the opposite.
On the other hand, it is a common practice for many non-Muslim journalists to wear their orientalist glasses once again, highlighting a few bloody scenes to present Islam as a violent religion. Some of them are just unconscious parts of the establishment and some of them are intentional closet racists.
I believe that you can present any similar religious ceremony, even the secular ones, in a similar way, if you want to construct such a discourse. Take the Thanksgiving Day. Even this American festival which doesn't have anything to do with any religion anymore can be related to cruelty to animals. Pardoning of a turkey by the President of the United States, on the other hand, may be regarded as a more appropriate ritual for such a secularized, religious holiday.
Finally, I think that all festivals, whether religious or secular, are sacrificial. Even Rio Carnival -which is on the eve of Lent, is sacrificial in a sense, if you take it as a performative act of getting rid of your self with music and dance, just like you get rid of your identity in a masquare. With a self-sacrifice, you are supposed to reach a higher level of consciousness with the help of something in yourself, which is more than yourself. Religions call this thing God. Some seculars call it cocaine.
So, sacrifice is something related to individual and I don't care much about the experience of all individuals. I'm more interested in the social. In this sense, I observe all sacrificial practices with an intent of critizing the socially-destructive ones, while promoting their everlasting creations, for sake of humanity.
Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for all the turkey!
