Here piggy piggy piggy...

I remember grade 5 very well. I was 10 years old, life was good - until we began our unit on pigs... gasp...

"Why do I need to learn about these animals?" was my first thought, this was quickly replaced by horror when I discovered we had to go on a field trip to a pig farm.

I argued with my teacher and told her that it was "against my religion." ... She responded with exasperation and told me that, "I'm not making you eat the pigs!" The field trip was mandatory, and to be honest I learned quite a bit that day.

Looking at it years later, it really brings to the forefront a prejudice that most Muslims and I would presume Jews and some Christian sects as well would hold - that pigs are a taboo animal. This taboo extends quite a ways into our lives, so much so that some predominantly Muslim countries have few or no porcine livestock at all. I've even heard many Muslims refer to pigs as "dirty animals," and other far worse things.

I've begun to think about this and to take exception to it.

I mean sure, eating and consuming pig flesh is forbidden in the holy Qur'an as well as the Old Testament, yet nowhere (to my knowledge and reading of it) does it state that pigs are evil, that they are creatures to be reviled. Rather, God has created this world, this entire universe and everything in it. That to me is a clear indicator that we should love pigs as a part of creation. When you love the Creator truly, you cannot help but love His creation. Every aspect of creation deserves unconditional love, particularly by a being called upon with the high title, "vicegerent of God on the Earth."

If we are to be worthy of this high title the Divine has given us, we must look past cultural taboos and interpretations and love even that which we feel we should not. Our prayers cannot be for our own sakes, or even our spiritual lives alone, I believe Mark Twain put it best when he wrote,

"But who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most[...]?"
- Mark Twain's Autobiography