Cats and Meat

Just before the start of Ramadan, Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali, mufti of Australia, said in a religious lesson:

If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside ... and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats’ or the uncovered meat’s? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.

Follow-up articles here and here.

Of course, his characterization of women as meat provoked an uproar, being described as incitement to rape of women. At the time, I barely noticed it except to mentally file away that yet another person with authority and influence had said something stupid and potentially harmful. It happens so much that, sad to say, I blazed right on by. (Probably a result of having heard way too much from Rush Limbaugh and cohorts. And now this. It really is all the same.)

Sheik al-Hilali’s comments recently received another mention (the follow-up articles above), to which I did pay attention. This time, I pondered the entire analogy. For an analogy to hold, more than just one part of it must ring true. Yes, plenty of men consider women mere objects, possessions, in this country and throughout the world. It matters not what the religion is, as objectifying humans (male or female, enslaved or free) spans all beliefs or lack thereof. Even in this country we refer to singles’ bars as meat markets, and without any implication of religion. Though both men and women are meat in that reference.

I was far more intrigued by the implication that men are like cats, and I wondered if al-Hilali really meant to suggest that. If I were a man, I’d be hollering at that characterization. Heck, I’ll holler anyway.

Cats are amoral, predatory, whimsical, and notoriously difficult (some say impossible) to train. I’ve read that the reason isn’t just because they’re not interested in rewards for obedience, but that they have notoriously short attention spans. They may grasp what is expected of them, but are so easily distracted by what?—a shadow, a creak, nothing that’s there. They are only truly and completely focused when on the hunt.

Cats take what they want in the absence of anything that prevents them from doing so. An affectionate cat who rubs all over a human is using the human to stimulate certain glands on the head that make it feel good. (But I still pet my cat, and the good feeling is mutual.)

So a religious leader says that men are cats. What does that say about men’s spirituality? Spirituality is kind of wasted on cats. All the rules and edification in the world are useless when dealing with cats. And have you heard the expression “It’s like trying to herd cats?”

If I want to keep my cat from eating certain food (meat for human consumption), certainly I keep the food away from the cat, but as I’m not interested in rotten meat, my first concern is to take good care of the meat and so I store it in the refrigerator. The cat is but one small concern in this. And no, nobody needs to keep me, a woman, in the figurative refrigerator for my own good.

Mostly, though, I maintain boundaries for my cat that have more to do with keeping the cat in line than with ensuring my meat doesn’t misbehave. I’m not focused so much on the food as on having a coexistence that benefits both my cat and me without giving the cat something she really doesn’t need and that won’t properly nourish her. Already we’re way outside the analogy.

In defense of all the men I’ve known who don’t behave as cats (and that really is most of them), al-Hilali is as wrong about the males-as-cats part of the analogy as he is in his offensive view of women. The men I know/have known don’t go around assaulting women, even the scantily clad. And these men’s religious beliefs cover the entire spectrum, from strictly observant Islam to atheistic, including the familiar (to me) hues of Christianity and Judaism.

While I don’t know nearly enough about Islam, I have read a number of thoughtful, helpful articles by Islamic leaders who don’t share al-Hilali’s or other extremist’s views. Just as so very many Christians, Jews, Hindus and adherents to other faiths don’t share the views of extremists within their own religion.

As happens so dismayingly often, bigotry of all flavors does hide behind the skirts of religion. How convenient. God countenances my insecurities and lack of self-control by giving me permission, even commanding me, to subdue anything that might threaten that self-control. God would never ask me to develop spiritually in such a way that I might have to respect all of God’s creation, including my fellow humans. Far better that they be subservient to me, because then God won’t ask anything of me.

You’ll find people with this mindset who claim religious beliefs, but it matters not at all what religion it is.

Al-Hilali said way more about himself than he did about men and women, or even how God works in the world.