Goat watch: President of Pakistan sacrifices a lot of bearded animals to please God, God not pleased

Goat watch: President of Pakistan sacrifices a lot of bearded animals to please God, God not pleased

Posted on February 17th, 2010 by Daniel Kalder

When I originally saw the headline in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper that President Asif Ali Zardari sacrificed a black goat a day in his presidential compound I was quite excited- could this be another entry for Lucifer Watch? After all the goat, especially a black one, is a beast often associated with the Lord of the Flies. But then again, Pakistan is a country which is 98% Muslim or thereabouts, and I just couldn’t see the people (or military) of that nation feeling all that comfortable with a leader paying tribute to the one they call Iblis; indeed I can’t see the people of any country feeling all that relaxed with a head of state openly in cahoots with Satan.

Then I read on and all was revealed. The sacrifice is not an invocation of the devil; quite the opposite- it is designed to ward off the influence of the ‘evil eye’ and ‘black magic’. The Dawn reporter then asked:

Does this, and the use of camel and goat milk, make the beleaguered president appear to be a superstitious man?

Well, not to his spokesman. “It has been an old practice of Mr Zardari to offer Sadqa (animal sacrifice). He has been doing this for a long time,” spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Dawn on Tuesday.

But his detractors, who want to see him out of the Presidency, would see in his new-found religiosity a sign of nervousness…

One thing is certain: Hundreds of black goats have been sacrificed since Mr Zardari moved into the President’s House in September 2008. His trusted personal servant Bai Khan buys goats from Saidpur village. The animal is touched by Mr Zardari before it is sent to his private house in F-8/2 to be sacrificed.

But all does not always go well in the world of incantatory magic:

Insiders say that when Mr Zardari moved into the President’s House, a flock of black partridges were introduced there for their supposedly magical effects.

Unfortunately, the whole flock was electrocuted when a live wire fell on their cage.

Fortunately Mr. Zardari’s lucky camel is well:

A camel, a cow and a few goats kept on the grounds of the presidency, however, survive and provide milk for its worthy resident.

Although it must be said that Zardari’s spokesman later denied to the Guardian that there was any lucky camel. He also clarified the nature of goat sacrifice:

“The main belief is that this practice invokes the pleasure of God. The corollary is that bad things will not happen, of course, but that’s a matter of interpretation,”

Before adding that Zardari’s late wife, the Harvard and Oxford educated Benazir Bhutto was also a big fan of ritual goat slaughter, performing sadqa regularly…

…after returning to Pakistan in late 2007, a few months before she was killed in a suicide attack.

Note that last detail- in spite of killing a lot of goats, Bhutto was still assassinated. Meanwhile regular animal sacrifice is not working that well for Zardari. The Guardian continues:

The goat revelations provide fresh meat for Zardari’s many enemies. With sections of the media and military openly arrayed against him, the president’s popularity ratings have plunged to the low teens.

Last week, long-standing corruption allegations resurfaced in the supreme court, where rivals appear to be preparing a legal attempt to oust him from office.

And let us not forget the apocalyptic state of the economy, the dependence on US aid, the presence of armed extremists within Pakistan’s borders, the chaos in the tribal regions, the deeply unpopular US drone attacks on Pakistani territory etc. Indeed, on the face of it, the goat killing just isn’t effective at all when it comes to incurring the pleasure of God. Perhaps then it would be better to move on to a more powerful magick, to graduate upwards to a higher animal? In Russia I once met a druid who told me that although his community regularly killed chickens and lower creatures for small blessings, every five years they would sacrifice a horse for the sake of the world.

Then again, it’s just possible that Pakistan’s problems are quite intractable and no amount of animal blood can help Mr. Zardari.

Ashtaroth!

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Daniel Kalder

Daniel Kalder is an author and journalist originally from Scotland, who currently resides in Texas after a ten year stint in the former USSR. Visit him online at www.danielkalder.com