Food Laws

[Heaven]

I know that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have the same kind of origins (I think). So I was wondering if the food laws in Islam were the same? I know that you don't eat pig, but that's about all I know of Islam's food laws.
Are they the same?
Do they come from the same thing? Well I know they wouldn't come from the bible...I think I mean are they from the same time or where they given to mohammed (sp?) later?
Just looking into what things all these religions share and it's really interesting!! It's so frustrating that there are such tensions between religions when if you look at it they are similar in a lot of ways.
TIA!

[Phteven]

Our dietary laws have some similarities with Jewish laws but also some differences.
I should explain what halal and haram mean before talking about food because we divide food into halal and haram.
In short in Islam everything is divided into 5 categories.
* Wajib/Fard - obligatory, duty
* Mustahab - favored
* Mubah - neutral
* Makruh - disliked, abominable
* Haraam - forbidden
Halal refers to anything that is legal (the top 3) but there is no food that is Fard or Mustahab so it's generally divided into halal and haraam.

What is halal is any kind of fruit and vegetable, animal products like milk, honey, eggs, grains, rice etc.
In terms of the meats pork is haraam,so is the meat of carion animals (animals that eat meat) and animals that have not been slaughtered correctly.
In order to be slaughtered in a halal manner an animal must have its throat cut by a Muslim who says a blessing as they do so or another person of the book so therefor Kosher meat is also regarded as halal.
Alcohol is haraam. When the revelation began alcohol was still halal but towards the end of Muhammed's life it was revealed as haram. (The Quran was revealed over many years. It started in general terms before more specific things). the Islamic position is that although there is both good and harm in alcohol from a social perspective the harm outweighs the good.
Anything that is rotten or putrid is haraam.
There is some debate over the status of shellfish. I folow the ruling that it is halal however there are legitimate arguments that it is haraam and some choose to follow those rulings (traditionaly Islam has been comfortable with pluralism and differing opinions unfortunately there is a modern, radical stream of Islam that seeks to reduce the pluralsim that has been part of Islam for so long).

Of course if it is a matter of survival then the importance of preserving life takes precedence.

[Heaven]

Thanks Chloe. It's very interesting! So no Muslims drink alcohol then? I didn't know that.

an animal must have its throat cut by a Muslim who says a blessing as they do so or another person of the book so therefor Kosher meat is also regarded as halal.

Does this mean that Islam believes that they have the same God as Christianity/Judaism??