Islam’s Dog Problem

Why so many sniffer dogs the U.S. sent to Egypt and Jordan have died.

Conan, the dog that helped track the Islamic militant leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a tunnel. The terrified Bakr exploded himself and two of his children he was using as a shield.

Sniffer dogs sent to Egypt and Jordan by the American government have been so mistreated or neglected by the Arabs that many have died. One can usually judge the level of the civilization of a culture by the way they treat their animals – donkey, dog, cat, whatever. The program to supply sniffer dogs to those countries, Egypt, Jordan and eight other countries, has been suspended.  Unacceptable conditions in Jordan were emaciated dogs and faeces-covered floors in kennels. Dogs had died of heat stroke and insecticide poisoning.

Sniffer dogs are part of the Antiterrorism Assistance Explosive Detection Canine Program, which was established by the US government in 1983 to provide training and supplies to foreign law enforcement personnel. Three out of 10 dogs sent to Egypt in August 2018  died, but Egyptian authorities have not allowed US personnel to access the dogs or their kennels.

The neglect and deliberate mistreatment of dogs in Muslim countries has its origins in a hadith (Islamic scripture) in which the Angel Gabriel told Muhammad he would not enter a house in which there were “dogs or pictures”. But that was not enough for Muhammad. He  went beyond merely avoiding dogs; he ordered that they should be killed. There was one exception: dogs used for hunting or for guarding of herds [of camels] might be spared. Gabriel, the messenger from Allah, would of course still not visit.

These hadith, nearly 1,200 years old, explain the attitude of Muslims today toward dogs. In the West, especially in the U.K., there are endless stories about Muslim taxi drivers refusing to pick up passengers who have seeing-eye dogs; Muslims on buses have gone into rages when passengers with service dogs came aboard, and even forced them to get off. In British hospitals, there have been reports of Muslims becoming furious at the sight of service dogs. Thus these hadith written in the early 9th century affect the lives today not just of 1.6 billion Muslims, but also of the many non-Muslims among whom they have been allowed to settle. A blind man in London or New York can be told in the 21st century by a cab driver to get out of a taxi with the service dog that he had managed to bring aboard, all because of some words supposedly uttered by Mohammed in the early 7th century in eastern Arabia.

A 71-year-old blind cancer sufferer George Herridge, was asked to get off a bus because of the reaction to his seeing-eye dog by some Muslim passengers. The driver told him to get off his bus when a woman and her children became furious at the sight of his guide dog. The mother flew into a rage and shouted at him to get off the bus.

In the US Somali cabdrivers have been known to refuse to pick up passengers with service dogs. In Paris, North African cabdrivers have been known to keep their doors locked when someone wants to climb aboard with his dog. In Germany, it is Turkish drivers who drive past would-be fares if they are accompanied by dogs.

Why should the Angel Gabriel have refused to enter a house where there were “dogs or pictures”?

That hadith represents an attempt to clearly distinguish Muslims from non-Muslims. “Pictures” came to mean any representation of living beings. Icons, statues, paintings of living creatures, are all forbidden in Islam. But these are the very things – these icons, statues, paintings – not least of Jesus, Mary, and assorted saints — that were to be found in Christian households and communities. Gabriel, then, was telling Muhammad, and through him all Muslims, not to be like the Christians, but to forbid what they allow. And thus, for nearly 1,200 years, on the basis of that hadith, Muslims have both vandalized and destroyed hundreds of thousands of works of Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist art. Even today Muslims continue to destroy historic works of art like they did in Mosul last decade.

In Zoroastrianism, dogs are considered righteous, clean, and beneficial for human beings, who have an  obligation to feed and care for them. Dogs are held in high regard for the aid they give to human endeavors, as well as because they are seen as having particular spiritual properties. What better way for Moslems to distinguish themselves from the Zoroastrians than by mistreating, and even killing, the dogs.

Well, it is the culture.

If you believe that all cultures are equal, then FOKJO