Haram!

Haram is an Arabic term meaning "forbidden."

In Islam is it usually a term referring to acts/behaviors/foods that are forbidden. There are a few common harams- such as:

• Eating pork: "He hath forbidden you only carrion, and blood, and swineflesh, and that which hath been immolated to (the name of) any other than God. But he who is driven by necessity, neither craving nor transgressing, it is no sin for him. Lo! God is Forgiving, Merciful". (Qua'ran 2:173)
• Drinking Alcohol: "Allah has forbidden alcoholic drinks. Whoever this verse reaches while they still possess any of it, they are not to drink nor to sell."

(I would really like some bacon right now)

One of the other Harams- is throwing bread away. Bread is such an important part of the nourishement and lives of Middle Easterners, that in Palestine at least-- throwing it in the trash is haram- an insult.

Before I knew this I kept wondering what the bags of bread were doing on the ground...and the bread looked pretty descent to me, because I went over to inspect!


It turns out, that people who have leftover bread (fresh pita bread gets stale pretty quickly) leave it out on the streets for stray animals to eat.

In our office for example- people put the bread back in the refrigerator and someone is in charge of disposing of it the next day at least. But throwing a leftover piece in to the garbage immediately-- is a definite no.