Well, I know that devout Hindus will not wear leather shoes or garments made from cattle skin, but do Muslims, similar in their dietary restrictions to Jews, require Halal laundry detergents?
I confess to being a bit astonished at the lengths to which religious observance can go, but then in our our land, I understand that it was forbidden in the more religious communities to drag a chair across the floor on Sunday, because it would make imaginary furrows in the imaginary dirt floor, which was too similar to plowing a field which in turn would be the sin of working on a Sunday.
Some of these observances make scientific sense, of a sort, to me. For example, regarding swine as unclean and unfit for human consumption. This was probably in part due to the trichinosis they probably carried in more primitive days, which has a quite deleterious effect on human health if the meat is not cooked thoroughly (I understand modern pig farm sanitation has greatly reduced, although not eliminated, that problem).
Similarly, the near deification of cows means that the provider of milk for the family will not be slaughtered for food itself.
The rest I accept as matters of faith, and as such, cannot be proved or disproved.
