from last week, via Sabbah’s Blog:
Gaza Strip, Tuesday, 11th of March 2008 (PCAS)– As siege of Gaza Strip still hitting all life aspects, some activists against siege expressed their anger towards the silent world. Tens of horses, camels, sheep, goats and donkeys rallied in front of the UN headquarters in Gaza City on Tuesday in protest of Israel’s crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian activists fitted the animals with signs in various languages reading, “Where is the world’s conscience?” Save the children of Gaza”, “Gaza is dying; end the siege,” “Is the UN an international lie?” and “The UN has to end the siege of Gaza.”
Sami Akila, the spokesperson of the Sunna’ Al-Hayat society and the organizers of the rally said if the animals’ messages reach the international community, Gazans will try sign language in an attempt to make their appeals understood.
“We know that animals in the world are fed to glut, while the children of Gaza suffer from hunger and anemia and most of them go to sleep without having supper. You are concerned about dogs more than your concern about us contradicting your own human values and the treaties you signed and failed to implement,” Akila said, addressing the UN.
Vegans of Color 
“We are the sisters walking up to you, asking for donations for an Islamic school. We are the sisters standing outside the masjid, selling baked goods to raise money for Islamic activities. We are the sisters planting flowers in the courtyard of the masjid, bonding and benefitting with our Muslim sisters, young and old. We are the sisters striving to bring the Muslim community together. Who are we?”
Sorry, I can’t support this stance. Not because I am a devout Christian. But because I am an atheist AND a vegan. There’s more to being a vegan than thinking it’s morally unacceptable by your religion to eat meat. Muslims think pigs are unclean and one of the lowliest animals alive.
Crap! I’m also at [hur-buh-vohr] on the “Vegan Blogroll”
first, i have no idea where you got that quote from, since it wasn’t in the article i linked. why did you feel the need to post it here and tell us that you don’t support it?
if this was my personal blog, i would not have approved your comment because it is completely off topic and thus seems to just be an excuse to say something against muslims.
second, this blog is for vegans OF COLOR, meaning we are examining veganism and animal rights through a kaleidascope of overlapping culture and identities. i don’t believe in god either but i am still marked as muslim whether i like it or not so it’s not as simple for me as it clearly is for you and others.
Not related to this post… You might be interested in writing about this:
http://www.soulvegfolk.com/
Since I commented on something unrelated to the post, here’s a comment on the actual post.
I think this is truly sad. Both humans and animals suffer in war and conflict. I think it’s terrible when people triage suffering and claim some suffering is more worthy of action than other suffering. It’s just tragic and makes me awfully sad.
The Gaza situation makes me all the more anti-cage. As far as I see it, fences and cages are evil for all animals, including humans.
I looked for this person’s quote too in the links provided and didn’t understand where it came from-or why it was here.
Nadia — I approved the comment b/c I figured it needed to be addressed, although I didn’t have time @ the moment I unscreened it to comment. (Also, esp. b/c this is still a relatively new blog, I am still figuring out what, if any, policy ought to be done re: screening/unscreening comments. I did delete the first troll comment the other day, along the lines of “We should totally tell Asians what to do, & yeah, some animals are cuter than others & don’t deserve to be eaten”)
Larry — I, too, am confused by your comment. First of all, it’s usually really inaccurate to make totalizing comments about what people as a category do — I mean, there’s a difference between saying something like “Traditionally, Muslim culture says” (although in general I think comments like that are on shaky ground regardless) or “Some Muslims” & what you said. & secondly, it’s not like any major religion is particularly friendly to animals. Would you say “Christians feel they have dominion over animals”? Really? All Christians? Would people say all Catholics are anti-choice, etc. etc.?
And second of all, yeah, the fact that it’s not in the linked post (which I didn’t realized when I first saw it) makes it a little more suspicious that you linked to it.
i was always taught that the reason we didn’t eat pork is because pigs were unclean, because they eat garbage. plenty of muslims who stop believing are still traumatized and won’t touch pork; plenty of muslims who do believe eat pork anyway. it’s not like it’s not true that many muslims think pigs are disgusting creatures– it’s just irrelevent to the topic.
Here’s the link where I got the quote: Sunna’ Al-Hayat
On topic:
So the protesters were using animals as a prop to illustrate the banal disregard for human suffering in the Gaza strip while we in the West coddle our pooches. Right? The protest had nothing to do with animal rights. If anything, the underlying message to me says that animal life is secondary.
Initially I was a bit confused really. In essence it’s a critical assessment of our treatment of animals in the West. I see no correlation with the use of animals in this type of protest.
Sorry, If I sound harsh. I’m a bit of a cynic.
Nadia — thanks for the clarification!
Larro — what I get from Nadia posting this snippet is that, in a world where most if not all societies value humans more than other animals, here are people (Palestinians) who are being treated worse than animals. And this ties in v. much to race & racism. Who said the protest had to do w/animal rights?