Odd News

Black goat slaughter aims to protect Pakistan's leader

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-28 09:21

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has a black goat slaughtered at his house almost every day to ward off "evil eyes" and protect him from "black magic", the Dawn newspaper reported yesterday.

A spokesman for the president said the goats were slaughtered as an act of Sadaqah - meaning "voluntary charity" in Islam whereby one gives out money or the meat of a slaughtered animal to the poor to win Allah's blessing and stave off misfortune.

"It has been an old practice of Mr Zardari to offer Sadaqah," said the spokesman, Farhatullah Babar. Pakistan is a predominantly Muslim country where many of the well-off offer Sadaqah.

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