{"id":28891,"date":"2013-06-23T08:10:25","date_gmt":"2013-06-23T04:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=28891"},"modified":"2013-06-23T09:37:07","modified_gmt":"2013-06-23T05:37:07","slug":"grilled-loin-of-hyena-a-surprising-saudi-delicacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/grilled-loin-of-hyena-a-surprising-saudi-delicacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Grilled Loin of Hyena: A Surprising Saudi Delicacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/grilled-loin-of-hyena-a-surprising-saudi-delicacy\/attachment\/hyena\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-28893\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"hyena\" src=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/hyena-e1371960559156.jpg\" width=\"645\" height=\"335\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Who knew? Hyena, particularly the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Striped_hyena\">Striped Hyena<\/a>, indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, is considered <i>halal<\/i> by some Saudis. And that fact is causing a problem as hunting it is threatening its protected status in the Kingdom, <i>Saudi Gazette<\/i> reports.<\/p>\n<p>While most schools of Islamic law consider hyena to be <i>haram<\/i>, that is, forbidden as food, the Shafi\u2019i school permits it. And, since all schools are given equal weight\/approval, it\u2019s apparently permitted to those who <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hyena#Hyenas_as_food_and_medicine\">follow that school<\/a>. Most lists of <i>halal\/haram<\/i> foods, however, put it in the forbidden category.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.saudigazette.com.sa\/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&amp;contentid=20130621170664\">Saudis gorge on hyenas as they face extinction<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Saudi Gazette report<\/p>\n<p>TAIF \u2014 The thought of hunting and eating hyena might send shivers down the spine of some, but not Saudis.<\/p>\n<p>Considered a unique and scrumptious delicacy, heynas are found in small numbers here but are largely consumed by Saudis.\u00a0And while people continue to gorge on the beast\u2019s meat, they seldom realize that they are on the verge of being extinct.\u00a0According to a report published in Al-Watan last week, hyenas are on the list of animals threatened with extinction.<\/p>\n<p>Ahmad Al-Bouq, director of the Wildlife Research Center in Taif, said: \u201cHyenas are threatened with extinction in the Kingdom. They are classified among the big beasts of prey, aside from the Arabian tiger and lynx.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ruling behind eating hyena meat in Islam is permissible. Dr. Saud Bin Mus\u2019id Al-Thubaiti, member of the teaching staff at the faculty of Shariah at Umm Al-Qura University, and a former professor, said that the Prophet (peace be upon him) has forbidden eating the meat of beasts of prey that have canine teeth and birds that have claws. However, he permitted eating hyena meat.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/grilled-loin-of-hyena-a-surprising-saudi-delicacy\/attachment\/hyena\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-28893\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CROSSROADS ARABIA: It may not feature high on the menu at many restaurants around the world but Saudis have a taste for hyena<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":28893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,37,173,482,10,5],"tags":[1209,17506,17500,18293,17501,18278,16724,17499,17502,18324,17505,18275,17503,17504],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28891"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28899,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28891\/revisions\/28899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}