ABSTRACT
This chapter examines central religious texts and their ideological foundations in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. It argues that the weight of the argument will fall on attempts to build and maintain boundaries between religious groups and highlights two important elements of interfaith food relations. First, it demonstrates the idealised separateness of Christians, Muslims and Jews through legislation. Second, it shows that the various dietary prohibitions were practised by members of each religious group, were known by the other religious groups and were believed to be vital to religious identity. Boundaries which were only meaningful at certain times of the day, week or year were common for all three religious groups. Fasting was undoubtedly the most common time restriction placed on faithful individuals. Ideological boundaries were evident in daily food practices. Finally, the chapter argues that maintaining boundaries was of utmost importance to authorities from all three religious traditions.
