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RELI 226-602 Final, Foltz, “Introduction: Islam, Muslims, and Non-Human…

- - - - Animals in Islam are acknowledged as important parts of creation
        and generally treated well, though Muslims tend to view non-human animals as inferior to humans. The Qur'an however often portrays animals as even more valuable than they are generally thought of
    - - "Equal consideration" - idea from Singer that the "interests of sentient beings, human or nonhuman, should be given the same weight"
- - - - Likely written in 4th century CE
      - Meant to illustrate core Buddhist beliefs through storytelling
      - Most influential Buddhist work
    - - Depiction of animals depends on whether Bodhisattva is an animal or a person.
        
        If he's human, the animals are just animals. Savage enough to eat their own young, but perceptive enough to become tame around Bodhisattva
        
        If he himself is an animal, the animals are heavily anthropomorphized, able to communicate with both people and animals alike, and are able to observe religious traditions like fasting
        
        Consistent throughout both stories is the idea that animals are inferior to people by nature, possibly due to the conditions required to become incarnated as an animal.
        
        "Even when born as animals, the noble-hearted show a bent for generosity, as far as they are able. What excuse, then, can a human being have for not being generous?"
      - Both have the same message of selflessness, but there are implications of how animals are perceived by Buddhist tradition.
  - - - Can be put into conversation with McCance who percieves the same type of human-animal hierarchy within the tradition that Ohnuma does.
      - Can be put into conversation with Ambros who similarly believes that viewing Western and Eastern religious traditions as opposites is an oversimplification.
- - - - "women and animals, often discursively connected, play vital roles in the symbolic language of religious identity" -Ali, 268
        
        Islamic Halal food regulations have made "insiders" and "outsiders". Although the Qur'an largely emphasizes kind treatment towards animals, Muslim secular ethics have created "insiders" that eat halal meat, as it is claimed that the creator Mohammad did. Thus, Muslims who do not eat meat are made to be outsiders.
        
        food laws play a large role in religious identity
- - - - Turning to premodern Buddhist texts, we see that animals do have status and subjectivity as moral agents in our own right.
        
        The idea that women were overly attached to their offspring caused them to be linked in the cultural imaginary with the status of animals or as beasts of burden.
        
        How does woman come down on the side of domestic versus animal in that kind of binary pair?
        
        From prohibiting women, cattle, and horses from sacred sites, how does that inform our understanding of the status of women and domestic animals within pre modern Japanese religion?
        
        “In premodern Buddhist texts, beasts were, thus, regarded as moral agents, even if this moral agency was hampered in comparison with humans.” (254)
        
        “According to the 20th minor precept in the Brahma Net Sutra, animals deserve human kindness and compassion because all living beings were once our parents in a former life” (255).
        
        Andrew Linzey & Carol J. Adams