Can Muslims eat beef?

Muslims can eat beef as long as it follows certain guidelines. The cow's slaughterer must kill the animal by cutting its throat in a swift, merciful fashion, and the carcass must be bled completely.

Meat prepared in this way is called "halal." Muslims must also avoid beef that scavengers have already dined on or meat that comes from a carcass that was not slaughtered but died by other means. The Qur'an expressly forbids eating meat from animals killed with blunt force, strangling, a headlong fall or by being gored, as well as meat sacrificed to a god. The only type of meat that Islam categorically forbids is pork.