Medicine is pork to Muslims

Copenhagen Post:

Most pills contain pork gelatine. An immigration consultant says Muslim patients should be warned about the risk of consuming pig meat, but doctors reject the idea

Thousands of unsuspecting Muslims break one of the Koran's most important commandments every day and consume pig meat, as most prescription medicine contains gelatine made of hog's hide, daily newspaper Urban reported.

'There is gelatine in almost every capsule and tablet today. It's also possible to process gelatine from cattle products, but because of the risk of mad cow disease, pig gelatine is the most frequent ingredient in medicine,' said department chief of the Danish Medicine Agency, Finn Clemmensen.

Fahmy Almajid, immigration consultant, said he found the discovery shocking.

'I've never heard before that medicines contain pork residues, and the average Muslim doesn't have a clue, either,' he said. 'Since Muslims will do anything in their power to avoid eating pig, I find it grotesque that doctors do not warn them about it.'

Michael Dupont, chairman of the Organisation of Practicing Doctors, however, rejected the idea.

'This is the limit,' he said. 'They can ask about this at the pharmacy or read the ingredients list. We can't spend our time on that. There's a limit to everything.'

Almajid said the medical industry was responsible as well, but Lise Rud, chairman of the Medical Industry Association's technical and environmental committee, said ingredients in medicines would not be altered because of religious sensitivities.

'Up until we find something better than pig gelatine, it will continue to be the most frequently used kind. And as long as we haven't heard that this is a problem, we won't work on changing it,' she said.

Almajid, however, said he feared Muslims would even die rather than eating pills containing pig products. He said the Koran allowed people to consume pork if it was essential to survive, and doctors needed to explain to their patients that they might in fact develop life-threatening diseases unless they took their medicine.

Hat tip, Limitstogrowth.org.