camels in the Middle East

"To add some colour to their articles, many reporters made a point of mentioning an incident where two camels and 10 sheep were apparently slaughtered during the welcoming ceremony. A Sydney Morning Herald article opened: "Camels were sacrificed in his honour, their blood flowed through the streets and the air filled with a roar of welcome". Some even tried to explain the significance of animal slaughter in Islam.  I'm not even going to reach for a book on my shelf or search Wikipedia to find Islam's connection to animal killing. Instead I'll resort to common sense: human beings kill animals. In English we call them butchers. Not one article bothered to mention that the "sacrificed" camels, with "their long, graceful necks slit open" would actually be eaten afterwards. When it involves Arabs or Muslims, the implication is that they're savages killing merely for the sake of killing." (thanks Sarah)