I consider to share Matthew Yglesias’ view that Ayatollah Sistani is one of the few reasons to have any hope for the future of Iraq. Therefore, I think it is important that we try to help him out when we can.

Oddly I dare suggest that I might have something to tell the Ayatollah about whether Caspian Sturgeon is Halal. Ayatollah Sistani does not seem to be sure whether Caspian Sturgeon have scales. Now I have personally eaten part of a sturgeon and I recall that it had extremely large scales (causing the pattern on the side of the sturgeon).

In spite of a background in biology I was unsure whether Caspian sturgeon might be a scale-less species. I turns out that Caspian sturgeon is just a generic term for 3 species, including Beluga sturgeon, and that they have scutes. So what are “scutes” ? I actually remember the word as the name of a Drosophilla mutant. Indeed google seemed pretty fixed on the Drosophilla mutant but hyperdictionary makes it clear that, in the context of fish and presumably halal, a scute is a kind of scale.

Thus IMHO moslems can eat caviar with no haram done.