Agreed. However, I think the issue with my Muslim friend was not the foreignness of this idea but rather that it was illustrated with a particularly off-putting (for her) example of pigs. In this case, I think something as simple as changing the animal to one that does not automatically invoke disgust in certain religious groups (i.e. Judaism and Islam) would increase the diversity of those taking the intro EA programme.

While taking the introductory EA virtual programme, I shared my experiences with my Muslim roommate. She was very sympathetic to the idea of ea. Big BUT: when I mentioned one of the exercises on moral decision making which weighed the expected value of deworming children with lobbying for farmed pig welfare (and ultimately led to comparing the value of human life with a pig), she was horrified. I’m thrilled to see that Ahmed is planning to develop a Muslim EA fellowship! In the meanwhile, perhaps a Muslim EA could review the introductory EA virtual programme and see if there are any examples such as this one which could be altered to make EA principles seem less hostile to Islam while retaining the community’s intellectual honesty?

Vegan EPA and DHA supplement: https://www.vegetology.com/supplements/omega-3