Abstract
In September 2018, the majority Buddhist government of Sri Lanka approved draft legislation banning animal sacrifice at Hindu Temples. The Cabinet referred to these sacrifices as a “primitive” practice that can cause physical and mental harm to society. Similarly, the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil is presently evaluating the constitutionality of a proposed bill banning animal sacrifice in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Proponents of this bill argue that animal rights supersede the religious freedom of the adherents of Afro-Brazilian faiths who perform these sacrifices. They further contend that the practice of animal sacrifice poses a threat to public health. Through the evaluation of these cases, this article will consider the relationship between animal sacrifice and religious freedom in the Global South. Using Brazil and Sri Lanka as examples, it will explore how laws and litigation protecting animal welfare can often be a guise for racial discrimination and religious intolerance.
Highlights
In September of 2014, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh in India wrote a 110-page decision banning the practice of animal sacrifice in the jurisdiction
Ignoring the death threats posed to the author of the amendment and the growing religious intolerance in Rio Grande do Sul during the legislative debates, they insisted that if Afro-Brazilian devotees did not engage in cruelty, they should not feel threatened by the Animal Protection Code
Devotees of Afro-Brazilian faiths in Rio Grande do Sul have been entangled in this dispute over animal sacrifice for more than fifteen years, since Manoel Maria proposed a State Animal
Summary
In September of 2014, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh in India wrote a 110-page decision banning the practice of animal sacrifice in the jurisdiction. Those involving Abrahamic religions, less information is widely available about similar disputes in the Global South Where such controversies have become the subject of scholarly research, a significant number of these works are written by scholars who are animal rights activists and use their platform to denounce these religious practices (i.e., Behrens 2008). In this special issue on Religious Freedom in the Global South, this article provides an alternative perspective on animal sacrifice debates in Latin America and Asia. Through case studies of Brazil and Sri Lanka, it explores how animal rights activism has been a tool of religious intolerance and racial discrimination
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