The supply chains around industrial factory farming for poultry, beef, and pork are very mature. They've also engaged in regulatory capture for nearly half a century. Many laws and regulations exist which would lock out new sources of meat to the average American consumer.
Goat milk and cheese, are becoming more popular, however. So there is a ready supply of livestock. So things could easily change.
Secondly, these aren't necessarily "acceptable" meats. Much like rabbits, which I raise for meat occasionally, eyebrows get raised and judgements get passed. Perhaps producers and consumers both find it easiest to stick with what's deemed acceptable and common, easy to homogenize and turn into processed food.
Among those who know better.. goat, yum.
Why don't Americans eat much goat? According to http://modernfarmer.com/2013/09/goat-left-behind/ :
> “It’s not a flavor issue; it’s the word more than anything else,” he says. Perhaps calling it “Caribbean lamb” would increase sales.
> Fairbanks guesses most folks simply have no experience with eating goat – or perhaps have had an unpleasant one eating curry cooked with older goat, which might have a gamey taste or tough texture.
> Another hurdle for goat meat: Consumers don’t see it on menus.
It's hard to say it's a Christian thing.
Note that this isn't a new thing either. "Consumer Attitudes and Handling Practices of Retailers for Lamb, Mutton and Goat", Feb. 1959 has several things to say about it, mostly concluding it's a lack of experience. It has more to say about lamb/mutton than sheep.
One of the curious observations is that military family consumption was very low compared to the average American family. Quoting from http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txa.tarb087001;view=1u... :
> Military officials attribute the dislike of military personnel for lamb to the fact that many troops spent several months or years in England and other heavy lamb and mutton-eating countries during World War II. The reasoning is that they were given so much lamb and mutton that many of them developed a psychological dislike for it.
So Northern europeans didn't really heavily use domesticated goats. The Spanish and Portuguese brought them to Latin America. But American culture developed in areas settled by English and fueled by Northern European immigration.
Here it's often prepared simply with spices over a grill, and it's delicious. I'm going to miss this when I go back to Europe.
There's quite a number of high-end restaurants that specialize in this delicious meat.
I would say hispanics as a whole are much more open about eating goat or sheep. Americans seem to prefer cow, and lean pork.
Or maybe it's the idea that a rack of delicious lamb chops is more expensive that the equivalent beef steak?
As for the pork thing, it is not just muslims. Strictly speaking christians should not touch it either as it is part of the old testament.
My personal take on this is that back then someone observed that people that ate pork often ended up sick and died.
While we now know that is is because of an illness passed from pig to human, back then it may well have been interpreted as divine punishment.
But then those days religion and law was one and the same, and so the declaration of pork as unclean may well be seen as a health and safety regulation.
Supposedly you can find passages from nearby cultures that line up very well with the old testament, with one crucial difference. While other cultures makes violations an offense against society, the bible makes them an offense against god. Meaning that what others deemed a social or secular matter, suddenly became religious.