Egyptians have been buying hundreds of sheep over the Internet to sacrifice for the annual Muslim feast of Eid Al-Adha when streets will flow with their blood, an enterprising firm told AFP Monday, February 26.
Gamal Selim, an employee with Masrawi, or "the Egyptian" in Arabic, said the month-and-a-half-old service was interrupted on Monday because they had sold out of their stock of 600 sheep, specially fattened for the feast.
Every able Muslim family is expected to sacrifice a sheep on the Eid Al-Adha feast, which falls this year on March 5, following the example of Abraham who is considered the grand patriarch of Islam and the Arabs.
"The website sheep.masrawy.com gives the opportunity to buy the ritual sacrificial sheep over the Internet for the first time," said Selim whose firm is selling livestock at 13 Egyptian pounds ($3.4) a kilo (2.2 pounds).
Butchers often sell out due to massive demand before the feast when stains of blood from the animals, which have their throats slit in accordance with Muslim dietary laws, leave their mark on Cairo and other Arab towns.
Internet surfers have been keying in the weight of the sheep they want to buy and the number of people they want to feed, and the company has been ensuring the animals are delivered to their door, Selim said.
The Masrawi site, in Arabic and English, also gives advice on how and when to slaughter your sheep as well as how much to donate to the poor. "We thought of the service after being flooded with questions from our website surfers who were afraid not to be able to get them from the butchers," Selim said. — (AFP, Cairo)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
