Eating certain seafood is haram, Turkey's top religious body says in fatwa
Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) said that eating mussels, calamari, crabs, lobsters and shrimp was haram in the Hanafi sect of Islam in a fatwa released on Aug. 26. As for the Shafi'i sect, it deems the consumption of frogs, turtles and water snakes haram, the Diyanet said.
Duvar English
Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) said in a fatwa dated Aug. 26 that eating certain seafood was forbidden and haram in Islam.
According to the Diyanet, the Quran says that the consumption of foods obtained from the sea was halal, but that this teaching was limited to creatures that couldn't survive on land.
But the Hanafi makes an exception and says that eating mussels, calamari, crabs, lobsters and shrimp is haram, the Diyanet said.
As for the Shafi'i sect, it dubs the consumption of frogs, crabs, turtles and water snakes to be haram, the Diyanet said.
"It's halal to eat creatures that can live in water and die in a short time once out of water, regardless of their shape or manner of death," the fatwa said for the Shafi'i sect.
As for the sea animals which can live on land, it is halal to eat them only if they resemble land animals whose meat is eaten, the Diyanet said, for the Shafi'i sect. Otherwise, it is haram to eat them, the Diyanet said.