Kangaroo meat ‘halal,’ Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate says

Meltem Özgenç / ANKARA

Muslims are free to eat kangaroo meat, says Turkey’s top religious body.

Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) has issued a fatwa stating that kangaroo meat and grasshoppers are “halal” food, but Islam bans eating “badgers, martens, weasels, beavers and sea otters.”

“Islamic scholars agree that ‘halal’ animals that are not mentioned in the Quran and in the hadith [the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad] are those that don’t eat feces and carcasses, and which are therefore neither wild nor coarse,” the Diyanet’s High Committee of Religious Affairs said in response to a citizen’s question.

As such, the fatwa continues, kangaroo is classified in the same category with other “grass eating, clean animals like deer, gazelle and antelope.” Grasshopper is also categorized as “halal” because “there is a special provision in the Sunnah,” it adds, referring to the way of life prescribed as normative for Muslims on the basis of the teachings and practices of Prophet Muhammad.

The fatwa describes badgers, martens, weasels, beavers and sea otters as “naturally wild.” Although there are differing views among Islamic scholars related to these animals, the fatwa argues, “As these animals are wild and carnivorous, it’s not appropriate to eat their meat.”