Egypt is caught up in a debate about whether it is permissible to eat donkey meat in Islam, and at the core of the debate lies the action of a Pakistani citizen.

The whole thing started when an Egyptian journalist named Mahmood Saad posted a video to Facebook about an incident involving his mother and a meat shop.

The family had been buying meat from the same shop in their neighborhood for 20 years. The shop was owned by a Pakistani citizen had been a reliable place for the family.

However, one day when Saad’s mother went to the shop she found it sealed. It later emerged that the shop had been closed because it was selling donkey meat.

Even in the video, Saad is in disbelief that he had been consuming donkey meat for years without knowing.

Then in March, another journalist named Tamer Amin raised the matter on TV channel Al-Nahar.

“Why don’t Egyptians eat donkey and horse meat?” he asked.

“As far as I know, there is no religious objection to eating donkey and horse meat. Why don’t we eat donkeys and horse meat? They are sold and eaten in many countries in the world,” he added.

He went on to say that horse meat was actually healthy and was a popular delicacy in Paris.

The news channel deleted the clips soon after, but users on internet made sure they would not disappear. A storm ensued as religious scholars said that horse meat is haram. A professor from the Jamia Al Azhar said that like dogs, cats, lions and wolves, the meat of donkeys is also haram.

The debate roped in another unlikely character, when former President Hosni Mobarak’s son, Alaa.

“With all due respect to your honour, I wish we would be careful and careful when dealing with this information; The Egyptian Dar Al Iftaa confirmed that slaughtering and eating donkeys are prohibited by Sharia,” he said.

Dar Al Iftaa, is the country’s Islamic advisory board and had clarified that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) had clearly forbidden the practice of eating donkey meat.

The news of donkey meat being sold in Egypt first emerged as meat prices skyrocketed as the country tried to stabilise after an IMF program.

As purchasing power decreases, many people have turned away from consuming meat altogether. However, some sellers continued to sell meat at a somewhat affordable rate. But that meat, as this story tells, might be coming from donkeys.