Clarifying Muslim beliefs about dogs
-
- May
- 14
Here’s a strange story out of St. Cloud University in Minnesota: A student left the school because he feared for the safety of his service dog.
Supposedly, he felt the dog was threatened by Muslim students who believed that dogs are unclean.
A school official said: “I think it was a misunderstanding where we didn’t really prepare either side for possible implications.”
The photo is of the student, Tyler Hurd, 23, and his dog, trained to protect him when he has seizures.
The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations released a statement supporting the student and his use of the dog. Here’s the statement, which explains Muslims beliefs about dogs:
“The moral and legal need to accommodate individuals using service dogs far outweighs the discomfort an individual Muslim might feel about coming into contact with a dog, which is one of God’s creatures,” said CAIR-MN Communications Director Valerie Shirley.Muslims believe the saliva of dogs invalidates the ritual ablution performed before prayer. For this reason, it has become a cultural norm for individuals not to have dogs in their houses – not because the dog is unclean.
The Prophet Muhammad allowed the use of dogs for protection and for hunting. He related several traditions (hadith) in which individuals were rewarded by God for protecting animals and punished for mistreating them.
Shirley mentioned that in 2007, a similar misunderstanding took place between Minneapolis cab drivers and passengers with guide dogs. After CAIR-MN facilitated dialogue between the two groups and cleared the misunderstanding, the Muslim taxi drivers offered free rides to attendees of the American Council of the Blind Convention in downtown Minneapolis. Abdinoor Ahmed Dolal, owner of Twin Cities Airport Taxi, said “Islam forbids us to turn away a blind passenger, whether they have a guide dog or not. Their rights come first.”
CAIR-MN says it will continue to work with the Muslim community in Minnesota to educate them about their Islamic and legal duty to accommodate those using service or guide dogs.
(Photo: Jason Wachter, St. Cloud Times)
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 2:30 pm by Gary Stern.
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The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
