Pepsi and Pig Intestines: Rumors and the Recreation of Islamic Law
I tend to avoid excessive mention on this blog of silly rumors that bounce around the Arab speaking blogosphere. They tend to be pretty weird, and heaven knows how much credence they can be given. But every once in a while, a rumor gets widespread enough, and repeated enough, that it really is worth mentioning, particularly when it helps serve this blog's central themes, respecting paranoia in the Arab world and the manner in which it affects Islamic law, at least in that particular region.
A recent (meaning last couple of years or so) and persistent rumor has been that Pepsi is in fact made partly from pig intestines, such that the Assembly of Islamic Research (مجمع البحوث الاسلامية), the research wing of the Azhar, the historically premier Sunni authority in the world has called for experiments to be done to determine this. I don't actually know if the Azhar has been involved, the blogosphere has been reporting this for some time, and you'd think the experiments would have been done by now, and it's not like the Azhar has a website reporting their stuff like the more populist folks. I don't want to speculate on their role.
Nevertheless, this rumor isn't sort of confined to weirdos and fringes, even Egyptian government sponsored websites or chatsites or whatever report it (in Arabic) here. What is most interesting about this latter post, as well as numerous similar posts out there in the blogosphere, is that they begin with the following title: "Have the Americans truly succeeded in ridiculing 2 billion Muslims and Arabs and caused them to drink all of these years carbonated beverages made from pig intestines?" Arabic readers:
هل نجح الأمريكيون بالفعل في أن يضحكوا على 2 مليار مسلم وعربي وجعلوهم يشربون طوال السنين مشروباتهم الغازية المصنعة من أمعاء الخنزير؟؟؟
So the rumor out there that has spread pretty far and wide is that Pepsi Cola, this huge ubiquitous presence in the Middle East (everyone has a Pepsi with dinner) with I would guess I don't really know billions of dollars of revenue per annum from the Muslim world is going to risk all of those substantial sums and a potential catastrophic drop in share price, for a laugh. I should note the piece gives other potential reasons they do this, relating to digestion and whatnot but the title provides the most prominent and important one. The posts explain if you drink Pepsi, you're participating in the humiliation and the ridicule of Islam and that more experiments will confirm this, at which time a decision will be made on the permissibility of Pepsi under the shari'a. These folks seem to suggest the conspiracy is partly proven by Pepsi's insistence on shipping the basic ingredients as a powder to its bottling plants, and not to disclose the ingredients of the powder when asked. apparently in this part of the cyberworld the only reason to protect a trade secret is to hide the distribution of pork to Muslims.
In a few of the blogs, the rumor gets siller. Pepsi is an acronym for "Pay every penny to save Israel", they say. Pepsi was created 1898. The Balfour Declaration came in 1917. Herzl had only written the Jewish State two years earlier, the first Zionist Congress met in 1897. You've got to get pretty thick into anti-Semitic conspiracies to make Pepsi that prescient.
What's the point, other than poking a little fun at the blogosphere? This, it seems, is another way in which rules can well be shaped by context. In some cases, the way this happens is you sort of reread the texts to say something the author couldn't have intended, as per the last post on risk, insurance and Islam. But sometimes, as with Pepsi, it's easier just to change the facts. You feel humiliated and ridiculed by the West, you want to resist its influence, the shari'a has come to be the vehicle of that resistance, Pepsi represents the West. Well I suppose you could sort of read through texts and try to come up with some sort of plausible reason that carbonated beverages are forbidden. It might be tough though in a world in which large numbers of Muslims are pretty happy with the drink.
Much easier, within the movement, to move a few facts around. People think the West is out there laughing at Islam? Well then, start up a rumor that Pepsi was formed to save an Israel that didn't exist, and another one (impossible to disprove given trade secrets) that Pepsi is made from a pig intestine, and from these a ban can be made. You don't need to show how carbonated beverages resemble fermented, alcoholic ones, you just make something up and say it's pork, everyone knows pork isn't allowed.
Now I'm not suggesting something quite this outlandish can fully make it mainstream. Muslims still drink plenty of Pepsi. But the point is, whether it's a trial in the US or rumors on the blogosphere, facts aren't as clear as they might seem. Just as texts can be manipulated to serve particular outcomes, facts can too. When something this absurd can get a pretty broad hearing, what about rumors that adhere closer to what might appear to be facts? After all, if Averroes from his grave can tell us about Pareto-efficiency and Ibn Taymiyya from his can tell us all about judicial review, maybe they can both be resurrected to rule as well, indirectly, all sorts of Western notions. All you have to do is move a few facts around . . . .
HAH
A recent (meaning last couple of years or so) and persistent rumor has been that Pepsi is in fact made partly from pig intestines, such that the Assembly of Islamic Research (مجمع البحوث الاسلامية), the research wing of the Azhar, the historically premier Sunni authority in the world has called for experiments to be done to determine this. I don't actually know if the Azhar has been involved, the blogosphere has been reporting this for some time, and you'd think the experiments would have been done by now, and it's not like the Azhar has a website reporting their stuff like the more populist folks. I don't want to speculate on their role.
Nevertheless, this rumor isn't sort of confined to weirdos and fringes, even Egyptian government sponsored websites or chatsites or whatever report it (in Arabic) here. What is most interesting about this latter post, as well as numerous similar posts out there in the blogosphere, is that they begin with the following title: "Have the Americans truly succeeded in ridiculing 2 billion Muslims and Arabs and caused them to drink all of these years carbonated beverages made from pig intestines?" Arabic readers:
هل نجح الأمريكيون بالفعل في أن يضحكوا على 2 مليار مسلم وعربي وجعلوهم يشربون طوال السنين مشروباتهم الغازية المصنعة من أمعاء الخنزير؟؟؟
So the rumor out there that has spread pretty far and wide is that Pepsi Cola, this huge ubiquitous presence in the Middle East (everyone has a Pepsi with dinner) with I would guess I don't really know billions of dollars of revenue per annum from the Muslim world is going to risk all of those substantial sums and a potential catastrophic drop in share price, for a laugh. I should note the piece gives other potential reasons they do this, relating to digestion and whatnot but the title provides the most prominent and important one. The posts explain if you drink Pepsi, you're participating in the humiliation and the ridicule of Islam and that more experiments will confirm this, at which time a decision will be made on the permissibility of Pepsi under the shari'a. These folks seem to suggest the conspiracy is partly proven by Pepsi's insistence on shipping the basic ingredients as a powder to its bottling plants, and not to disclose the ingredients of the powder when asked. apparently in this part of the cyberworld the only reason to protect a trade secret is to hide the distribution of pork to Muslims.
In a few of the blogs, the rumor gets siller. Pepsi is an acronym for "Pay every penny to save Israel", they say. Pepsi was created 1898. The Balfour Declaration came in 1917. Herzl had only written the Jewish State two years earlier, the first Zionist Congress met in 1897. You've got to get pretty thick into anti-Semitic conspiracies to make Pepsi that prescient.
What's the point, other than poking a little fun at the blogosphere? This, it seems, is another way in which rules can well be shaped by context. In some cases, the way this happens is you sort of reread the texts to say something the author couldn't have intended, as per the last post on risk, insurance and Islam. But sometimes, as with Pepsi, it's easier just to change the facts. You feel humiliated and ridiculed by the West, you want to resist its influence, the shari'a has come to be the vehicle of that resistance, Pepsi represents the West. Well I suppose you could sort of read through texts and try to come up with some sort of plausible reason that carbonated beverages are forbidden. It might be tough though in a world in which large numbers of Muslims are pretty happy with the drink.
Much easier, within the movement, to move a few facts around. People think the West is out there laughing at Islam? Well then, start up a rumor that Pepsi was formed to save an Israel that didn't exist, and another one (impossible to disprove given trade secrets) that Pepsi is made from a pig intestine, and from these a ban can be made. You don't need to show how carbonated beverages resemble fermented, alcoholic ones, you just make something up and say it's pork, everyone knows pork isn't allowed.
Now I'm not suggesting something quite this outlandish can fully make it mainstream. Muslims still drink plenty of Pepsi. But the point is, whether it's a trial in the US or rumors on the blogosphere, facts aren't as clear as they might seem. Just as texts can be manipulated to serve particular outcomes, facts can too. When something this absurd can get a pretty broad hearing, what about rumors that adhere closer to what might appear to be facts? After all, if Averroes from his grave can tell us about Pareto-efficiency and Ibn Taymiyya from his can tell us all about judicial review, maybe they can both be resurrected to rule as well, indirectly, all sorts of Western notions. All you have to do is move a few facts around . . . .
HAH
Hey - who made the argument about Averroes and Pareto efficiency?
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Mahmoud El Gamal, a justly celebrated economics professor at Rice who does a lot of work in Islamic finance. His book on Islamic finance, released I think last year, mentions it.
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A friend of mine who knows that i am a Pepsi addict brought me a print-out of what is supposed to be a news item from the official Saudi News Agency, saying that Pepsi includes Porcine materials, and the news item dated back to 2007.
I laughed, with a Pepsi can in my hand, and showed him that it was "Made in Saudi Arabia", Production date: Feb 2008!
So i wonder what would those who created such a stupid rumor say about the Pepsi and Coca-Cola which is made in all the Arab and Muslim countries?!
There are just some people who doesn't want us to think! But no! We shall think!!
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Keep up the good work Z, you are the brave one out in Iraq fighting these fights, while I am safely esconced in the US.
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