Sydney Muslims take Eid al-Adha livestock sacrifice into their own hands

‘We have such a divorced view of the animals we consume’: Mohammed and Ibrahim say doing their own qurban maintains their culture and builds connection to the animal. Photograph: Bahram Mia/The Guardian

As Mohammed loads a sheep into a van, to be taken to his home where it will be slaughtered in his back yard, the themes of Eid al-Adha become a lived reality for him, his family and his friends.

“This is a tradition rooted in Abrahamic foundations – doing it by your own hands is an embodied practice,” the Sydney man says, standing in the cold in his uncle’s back yard in western Sydney.