Is it haram to touch a capybara since it is called “Babi Air” in Malay?

 

LIFE ISN’T easy if you are a pig and happen to be living in peninsular Malaysia. Almost 60% of the population there hates you and won’t even want to touch you, while the remainder probably want to serve you on their plate.

But what happens if you look like a pig but you’re not a pig? Malaysians have discovered once again that no topic is too small, too strange, or too adorable to spark a religious discussion.

This time, the unlikely star of the debate is none other than the internet’s favourite giant guinea pig, the capybara, or as many Malaysians nervously discovered, the “Babi Air.”

Recently, media agency Sinar Harian carried a news piece on X where a netizen found a capybara at a petting zoo. The individual inquired if it was alright to touch the animal since there is a word, “babi” in it.

Unlike monkeys, which steal your sunglasses with criminal intent, or geese, which operate like feathered gangsters, capybaras sit peacefully in hot springs beside ducks, turtles, and occasionally crocodiles as if they are hosting a diplomatic ASEAN summit.

They radiate an aura of halal vibes. We suppose this will make it even more confusing for our fellow Malaysians.

But in the comment section, it appears a good number of netizens are well informed. 

“In biology, it’s a descendent of rodents,” said @StiltskinMan while @KingOfTheKin9s advised caution, stating that the capybara shares similarity with a pig, that it loves to eat its own faeces.

Then there was a hard-hitting @XWarisan asking sarcastically if it was haram to touch a “siput babi,” which is technically just a garden snail.

The winning comment probably goes to netizen @AbuDawood:

But on a more serious note, we consulted with the religious experts and this is what they said.

Capybara, whose scientific name is Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris, is the largest of all rodents.

Unlike pigs, whether wild or domesticated, it is an omnivorous mammal belonging to the rodent family, whereas pigs belong to the family Suidae.

Therefore, it is clear that the capybara, or “Babi Air”, is not of the same species or family as the pig. Touching a capybara is not the same as touching a pig.

Meanwhile, the capybara itself remained completely unbothered, probably wondering why Malaysians were holding emergency theological meetings over its existence. — Focus Malaysia