[nagdu] Dogs and Islam: The Devil and the Seeing-Eye Dog

Thu Mar 25 16:43:20 UTC 2010

Ugh. My spell checker replaced what should have been Muslims with museums.
Sorry.

Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
CEO/Founder
My Blind Spot, Inc.
90 Broad Street - 18th Fl.
New York, New York  10004
www.myblindspot.org
PH: 917-553-0347
Fax: 212-858-5759
"The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who is
doing it."

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-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Albert J Rizzi
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 12:40 PM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Dogs and Islam: The Devil and the Seeing-Eye Dog

We have the same issues in Manhattan. I find however that many museums are
very interested in discussing the Koran and this would make for one great
dialogue for sure.

Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
CEO/Founder
My Blind Spot, Inc.
90 Broad Street - 18th Fl.
New York, New York  10004
www.myblindspot.org
PH: 917-553-0347
Fax: 212-858-5759
"The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who is
doing it."

Visit us on Facebook LinkedIn

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Jewel S.
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 12:21 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Dogs and Islam: The Devil and the Seeing-Eye Dog

A very interesting article! It is a sad thing that the person was
asked off the bus because of people's unrealistic beliefs about
uncleanliness or the devil's presence. But it brought to light this
issue, so it was in a way, a good thing.

Many Islamic taxi drivers also refuse to take a passenger with a guide
dog or assistance dog, saying that their taxi will be unclean.
Officials have been trying to make these drivers accept guide dog
teams in their taxis, but I know in D.C. at least, it came to the
point of firing and banning several taxi drivers from working in taxi
companies for their refusal to comply with the ADA.

~Jewel

On 3/25/10, Ginger Kutsch <gingerKutsch at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Published on Psychology Today (http://www.psychologytoday.com)
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------------
>
> Dogs and Islam: The Devil and the Seeing-Eye Dog
> By Stanley Coren, Ph.D.
> Created Mar 23 2010 - 7:02am
> My attention was caught by an article in the Reading Evening Mail
> which described how George Herridge, a 71-year-old blind
> Englishman and cancer sufferer, was asked to get off a bus
> because of the hysterical reaction to his seeing-eye dog by some
> Muslim passengers. Certainly in early Islamic tradition, in early
> Judaism and Christianity, dogs were generally considered to be
> unclean, with the stigma arising from the scavenging pariah dogs.
> Packs of dogs were a major problem in many Islamic centers. They
> carried rabies and various other diseases, but it was recognized
> that their scavenging filled an important function. Thus Xavier
> Marmier wrote in the mid-nineteenth century that "disagreeable as
> these animals may be, in the state of Constantinople they are
> practically a necessary evil. Rectifying the lack of foresight of
> the city police, they cleanse the streets of a great quantity of
> matter which otherwise would putrefy and fill the air with
> pestilential germs." However the incident involving Mr. Herridge
> occurred in modern England, where there are no pariah dogs, and
> the dog in question was a calm Labrador Retriever, working as a
> service dog and under complete control.
>
> A short time later I was at a university function and managed to
> corner a professor who was an expert in Islamic matters. I
> described the newspaper report and asked him about the
> relationship between dogs and Islam.
>
> He sighed and glanced upward and then explained, "Muslim beliefs
> about dogs are sometimes confusing and contradictory. The
> majority of both Sunni and Shi'a Muslim jurists consider dogs to
> be ritually unclean but these beliefs are not unanimous. The
> jurists from the Sunni Maliki School disagree with the idea that
> dogs are unclean, and those of the Sunni Hanafi School are
> ambiguous, allowing trade and care of dogs without religious
> consequences. However all of these opinions are based, not on the
> Koran itself, but on the Hadith, which are commentaries,
> analyses, and interpretations of the Koran. It is these Hadith
> that suggest that to be touched by a dog is to be defiled and
> requires an act of purification. For instance they require that a
> bowl from which a dog has eaten or drunk must be washed seven
> times and scrubbed in earth before it is again fit for human
> use."
>
> If we look directly at the Koran itself, it turns out that dogs
> are mentioned five times, and are never described as being
> unclean. In fact the longest group of passages including a dog is
> quite positive, and it relates to the story of the Seven
> Sleepers. As the chronicle goes, during the short reign of the
> Roman emperor Decius around A.D. 250, nonbelievers were
> systematically persecuted, in an effort to strengthen the
> state-supported religion. In the city of Ephesus (now in western
> Turkey), seven faithful young men fled to a cave on Mount
> Coelius. The pet dog of one followed them in their flight. Once
> in the cave, some of the men feared that the dog-Kitmir by
> name-might bark and reveal their hiding place, and they tried to
> drive it away. At this point, God granted the dog the gift of
> speech, and he said, "I love those who are dear unto God. Go to
> sleep, therefore, and I will guard you." After the men had
> settled down to sleep, leaning on the back wall of the cave, the
> dog stretched out with his forelegs facing the entrance and began
> his watch.
>
> When Decius learned that religious refugees were hiding in some
> of the local caves, he ordered that all the entrances be sealed
> with stone. Kitmir maintained his vigil, even while the cave was
> being sealed, and made sure that no one disturbed the sleepers.
> The men were forgotten, and they slept for 309 years. When they
> were finally awakened by workers excavating a section of the
> mountain, the dog finally stirred and allowed his charges to
> return to the world, which was now safe for their faith.
> According to Moslem tradition, the dog Kitmir was admitted to
> paradise upon his death.
>
> "Certainly an unclean animal would not be admitted to paradise,"
> the professor commented. "There is another passage, however, that
> is often misinterpreted when the jurists who wrote the Hadith
> note that Mohamed ordered 'Kill all dogs.'"
>
> This command from the prophet resulted from a historical
> incident, where the Governor of Medina was concerned about the
> number of stray dogs overrunning the city, particularly because
> of the threat of rabies and perhaps other diseases that were
> spread by the pariah dogs foraging through the garbage. At first,
> Mohammed took the uncompromising position that all the dogs
> should be exterminated and thus issued his command. On
> reflection, however, he mitigated his decree, for two major
> reasons. The first was religious: canines constituted a race of
> Allah's creatures, and He who created the race should be the only
> one to dictate that it should be removed from the earth. The
> second, more pragmatic, was that some categories of dogs,
> particularly guard dogs, hunting dogs, and shepherd dogs, were
> useful to humans and had hence earned their right to exist.
>
> The Islamic professor added, "Some legends say that the prophet
> himself actually owned one or more salukis that he used for
> hunting. In fact one passage in the Koran quite specifically says
> that any prey that is caught by dogs during a hunt can be eaten.
> No purification, other than the mention of Allah's name, is
> required of it. So, in effect, Mohamed nullified his early ruling
> against the canine race.
>
> "Further evidence against the idea that all dogs were to be
> killed comes from another passage in the Koran. It says that a
> prostitute noticed a dog near a well, who was suffering from
> thirst and near to death. She took off her shoe, dipped it into
> the well and allowed the dog to drink the water from it. Because
> of this act of kindness, Mohamed absolved her of all of her sins
> and allowed her to enter paradise. I find it hard to imagine that
> if he really felt that all dogs were evil and were to be killed
> that he would bless that women for saving a life that he had
> condemned.
>
> "I personally believe that the reason that the Hadiths condemn
> dogs comes from another source historically. One of the religions
> standing in the way of the spread of Islam was Zoroastrianism,
> which was quite successful and had many adherents in the Middle
> East. Dogs were prized by Zoroastrians, and treated with great
> affection and reverence. If you look at the way history works it
> is often the case that the gods of the old religion are converted
> into the devils of the new religion. Similarly those things
> prized by an old religion are often held up as objects of
> hysterical hatred by the new, and the Muslim attitude toward dogs
> fits into this category."
>
> He then suddenly stopped in his narrative, as if he had had an
> insight. "Tell me more about that seeing-eye dog on the
> bus-specifically what color was it?"
>
> "It was a black Labrador Retriever," I replied.
>
> "That may explain part of it," he said. "While Mohamed rescinded
> the sentence of death for dogs that work and have a useful
> function, he allowed it to stand for one class of dogs-namely,
> stray black dogs. The reason for this is that he believed that
> the Devil often appears masquerading as a black dog. Perhaps that
> Muslim family's concern was not because of their belief of the
> unclean nature of dogs in general, but because of their fear that
> they were in close proximity to the Devil-in the guise of that
> particular black dog."
>
> Stanley Coren is the author of many books including: The Modern
> Dog, Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses? The Pawprints of History, How
> Dogs Think, How To Speak Dog, Why We Love the Dogs We Do, What Do
> Dogs Know? The Intelligence of Dogs, Why Does My Dog Act That
> Way? Understanding Dogs for Dummies, Sleep Thieves, The
> Left-hander Syndrome
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------------
>
> Source URL: http://www.psychologytoday.com/node/40001
>
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