h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This article says that during Ramadan, "there is no smoking, medicine or sex". and "Ill people ... are exempt from the fast". Does Islam consider 'medicine' to be something else?

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if during Ramadan you have a non-serious complaint, such as a headache, are you expected to live with it?

"In Islam, women and men are intended to be treated as equal" is something that the islamic public relations office appear to have failed at. Many in the UK and the rest of Western Europe would consider the treatment of women in, for instance, taliban controlled Afghanistan as somewhat less than equal. In more local islamic communities there seems to still be a perceived discrimination against women. While western civilisation has been, and still is guilty to some extent, of the same thing, there's still much progress to be made, it seems (to me at least)

Muzaakboy appears to be putting together an informative article on this area over at A932663, currently in peer review.

Also, you didn't mention in the food section, what I beleive is a total ban on pig products. Something shared with judaism. Perhaps a small ommission, but I'm curious as the the reasoning.

I understand in judaism, that certain foods cannot be combined. (Something in the Torah about 'lamb' and 'mothers milk') meaning that followers cannot combine, in the same meal, foods from two different areas. For instance, Lasagne is not permitted, as it mixes milk products and meat products, whereas both would be fine by themselves (assuming vegetarian cheese). Is there anything similar in islam?

yep. if it's an inconvenience, put up with it. On the other hand if it's a cause for concern, then it falls under a medical restriction so it's forbidden to fast. Islam errs on the side of caution.

J

There is no problem on mixing things as far as I am aware but as for the pig thing there are several reasons, none actually mentioned in the Quran or Hadith.

Simpally in the Quran god tells us not to eat pig.

Could be that pigs have similer DNA to humans as we are transplanting from them in to humans these days.

Could be that they are dirty (though there actually fairly clean).

I think the most logical reason is simpally that pig goes of very quick in heat and there where no fridges or frezers around the time the Quran was revealed.
Plus pig meat contains nasty bacteria.

Adib

> Could be that they are dirty (though there actually fairly clean).

I think modern farming technique has a lot to blame for this view. If asked, most pigs prefer open spaces, grass or woodland. Mind you, I guess they'd be pretty annoyed about being farmed in the first place. I also suspect that if you did ask one, all you'd get is 'Oink'.

This 'dirtyness' seems to be the general beleif in jadaism, but I can't vouch for that first hand. Which brings us to...

> I think the most logical reason is simpally that pig goes of very quick in heat and there where no fridges or frezers around the time the Quran was revealed.

Very true; but all meat goes off eventually, although it is said that some meat improves with aging, although you won't catch me hanging dead animals up on pegs for a weed to improve the flavour. That sort of thing tends to put me off my dinner.

> Plus pig meat contains nasty bacteria.

Not necessarily so. All butchered meat will contain bacteria. Merely cutting into any meat will provide ample opertunities for bacteria to invade otherwise sterile areas. Chicken, for example, naturally contains salmonella, which is one of the more nasty bugs. Any insufficiently cooked or cured meat will harbour live bacteria. Some strains are more dangerous than others, and some strains (various types of lactobaccilus for example) can be beneficial. (Think yoghurt, and of course all types of brewing) Bacteria are, for instance, responsible for the production of vitamin K in the body, which can't be obtained easily in any other manner.

True on some accounts, but pig meat goes of a lot faster than the others. The most common form of food poising in the summer is from ham and other pork products.
As for chickens yes every chicken has salmonella but of the hundreds of types only one is harmfull to humans. (I got that interesting fact from my mom who is a sort of chicken expert, don't ask).
But as I have already said saying wht Muslims can't eat pork is pure speculation. It comes down to that Allah has told us not to. For Muslims that is not enough to have. Though we can talk about it and ponder we never question the fact Allah has told us not to eat it.

Adib

Some modern historians believe that the prohibition of eating pig meat is due to the fact that pigs were commonly infected with the parasite Taenia solium, a type of parasitic worm (a Helminth) that infects the gut and causes cysts in the liver (cysticercosis).

The consumption of pigs was first banned by the Israelites and incorporated into the Jewish Torah, and this law was perpetuated by Islam.

Karl