Western Resistance

« Belgium: Moroccan Islamist's Alleged Murders To Be Investigated | | King John, Sharia and England »

February 22, 2008

Iran: Islamic Law - Elderly Man Sentenced To Jail, Lashes, For Walking A Dog

On Tuesday, Italian news agency AKI provided a news story, later picked up by Fox News that would shock most Westerners.

A 70-year old man was walking his dog in the street outside his home in Shahr Rey, a suburb of Tehran. He was arrested, handcuffed and later taken before an Islamic judge. The judge found the elderly man guilty of "disturbing public order" and commanded that the man be sentenced to four months' jail, and additionally to be given 30 lashes.

Such bizarre rulings highlight a severe prejudice at the heart of Islam, a prejudice which stems from the time of Mohammed, founder of Islam.

The Hadiths of Imam Muslim are generally regarded as "sahih" or "authentic". Book 10, Chapter 41 of his collection of these oral traditions is entitled "Command of killing of dogs and then its abrogation, and prohibition of keeping them but for hunting and protection of lands or cattle or similar."

The first Hadith of this chapter (Number 3809) reads: "Ibn 'Umar (Allah be pleased with them) reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) giving command for killing dogs."

Number 3810 from this chapter states: "Ibn 'Umar (Allah be pleased with them) reported: Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) ordered to kill dogs, and he sent (men) to the corners of Medina that they should be killed."

Number 3813 states: "Abu Zubair heard Jabir b. 'Abdullah (Allah be pleased with him) saying: Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) ordered us to kill dogs, and we carried out this order so much so that we also kill the dog coming with a woman from the desert. Then Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) forbade their killing. He (the Holy Prophet further) said: It is your duty the jet-black (dog) having two spots (on the eyes), for it is a devil."

Other Hadiths in this chapter such as 3822 state that dogs can only be kept for hunting: "Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: He who kept a dog which is neither meant for hunting nor for watching the anitmals nor for watching the fields would lose two qirat every day out of his reward; and there is no mention of the fields in the hadith transmitted by Abu Tahir."

Iran

Zoroastrians existed in Iran for centuries before Islam took control. For them, a dog was a noble friend to man and protector of herds. Anyone who injured or harmed a dog would receive severe punishments - if one injured or killed a pregnant dog, the transgressor would be killed.

The traditional history of treating dogs well by followers of the indigenous religion of Iran has led to a somewhat schizophrenic attitude towards dogs. Zoroastrians are a minority who still try to cling to their customs, despite the oppression that has befallen them under the Ayatollahs. Dr Andrew Bostom describes some of the cruelties carried out against Zoroastrians' dogs as part of a pattern of persecution against their owners.

In such a climate, condemning dogs and their owners has become an Islamic duty in post-revolutionary Iran. In the city of Urumiyeh in the north-west of Iran, local law followed religious edicts against dogs. In 2001, police enacted a policy of confiscating short-legged dogs.

Urumiyeh cleric Hojatolislam Hassani (Hojatoleslam Gholamreza Hassani) has been supportive and influential in such policies. In 2002, he preached: "I demand the judiciary arrest all dogs with long, medium or short legs - together with their long-legged owners. Otherwise I'll do it myself."

Hassani declared that ownership of a dog was an act of moral depravity. With no sense of irony, he declared: "In our country there is freedom of speech, but not freedom for corruption."

In June 2002, police in Urumiyeh ordered that no-one could sell any dogs, and issued penalties to anyone walking a dog in public.

In the capital, Tehran, dog ownership had then been on the rise. The recent case of the 70-year old man being given a jail sentence and lashes is seen by AKI as an "example case", where the harshness of the sentence "seems to want to panic the owners of dogs that despite repeated warnings by the police, continue to defy the authorities by taking their dogs outside their homes."

In September 2007, Radio Free Europe reported that police in Tehran, where dog ownership is increasing amongst the young, had set up a "dog prison". Anyone found walking a dog in the open has their pet carted off to the canine jail, and only regains their dog when they have paid a fine.

One young woman whose dog was confiscated said that she was insulted by police when she went to retrieve her dog. She said: "They said, 'We want to get rid of Western culture.' They said, 'You live in an Islamic country, it's not right to have dogs. Are you not Islamic? Why does your family allow you to own a dog?' They insulted me, they even told me that they hope my dog will die. But there was nothing I could do but cry. You can't imagine how badly I was insulted."

The ban against walking of dogs in the capital has caused confusion. One young man even found himself arrested for placing notices about his lost dog.

In November last year, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was criticized after he allowed his security team to use dogs to sniff for explosives at a venue where he was due to appear. Ahmadinejad was appearing at the national press exhibition in Tehran. For two hours, four sniffer dogs were set to work while journalists and others were ordered to stay outside.

The four dogs had been imported, already fully-trained, and had cost £314,000 ($617,170).

Earlier this month, AKI reported that Ahmadinejad was again criticized by religious leaders for having four guard dogs. These had been brought in from Germany, costing £82,974 ($163,0850 each.

The double standards of Ahmadinejad having dogs while others were banned led to the Fars news agency publicly defending the president. It stated: "First of all these dogs are only of a German breed, bought as puppies, but grown and trained in Iran in the hands of Iranian instructors. The purchase of these dogs was authorised by a fatwa issued by several ayatollahs who approved the use of these animals if the only goal was to guarantee personal security and not infringe on any religious rule."

On November 15, 2005 a dog belonging to an Iranian breed usually used for hunting appeared at the shrine of Imam Reza, the Shia "eighth imam". The shrine is at Mashad, close to the Afghan border, and is frequently filled with pilgrims. The dog wound its way through the labyrinthine complex of Ostan-e Qods-e Razavi and found its way to the inner sanctum, where Imam Reza's tomb is situated.

The dog then remained beside the tomb. It appeared to have a conjunctival condition, but witnesses claimed it was "crying". The dog also let out a howl, which was seen as an act of mourning for the Imam. The dog had avoided treading on carpets around the tomb. The dog was eventually removed, but it briefly became a celebrity, with its image sold on postcards outside the shrine. A guard said the dog would be treated well because ""like many of those who come on pilgrimage here it has been called by Imam Reza and is seeking refuge."

This is how the story was treated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News (IRIB):

Weeping dog in pilgrimage journey

Tehran, Nov 20 - Unprecedented enough, a mourning shepherd dog made its way into the holy shrine of Imam Reza (A.S.), in the northeastern city of Mashad, the Iranian daily Entekhab reported Sunday on its website.

The dog picked its way through the tomb's pilgrims to come close to the reticulated sepulture of the eighth infallible successor of Islam's prophet.

It was then that the sheep dog began to stun the pilgrims by laying head on the ground 3 meters away from the sepulture and weeping in weird tone.

Witnesses said the newcomer was first intercepted by a gate-keeper who saw a dog trying to calmly creep into the complex.

'I couldn't believe my eyes. I tried to keep it away. I mouthed the gesture 'go away' in a calm manner and it obeyed', the gatekeeper told Entekhab.

The dog then tried the shrine's special parking lot and succeeded to enter the premises. Security cameras monitored a dog which hid itself besides a stone-loaded truck and slunk into Azadi courtyard, the holy shrine's main corridor.

The dog was courteous enough not to step on the tomb's carpets. Its movement caught no attention until it arrived two to three meters away from the sepulture. Witness pilgrims were interrupted to watch the dog crouching in the vicinity and sheding tears.

A movie record of the dog's journey will be released soon.

Blind People and Muslim Taxi Drivers

Though the Koran makes no mention of dogs as unclean, many Muslims do feel that dogs are forbidden to them by their religion. As a personal choice that is acceptable, but increasingly in the West there are cases of Muslim taxi drivers who refuse to take blind passengers who have with them their guide ("seeing eye") dogs.

Daniel Pipes presents a selection of cases from America and Europe where Muslim cab drivers have discriminated against blind people with guide dogs.

In Britain, for example, even though the Disability Discrimination Act prevents cab drivers from refusing guide dogs in their vehicles, the law is regularly flaunted. Even the BBC uses a cab firm where a Muslim driver has refused to take a blind woman and her dog.

On a cold rainy night, a blind woman, 39-year old Mrs Jane Vernon, had just finished an appearance on BBC television's Newsnight program. She had been invited onto the current affairs program because she is legal officer at the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and wanted to get home to Hammersmith, west London, where she lived.

The BBC has a contract with a company called Niven's and Co, a minicab company, to drive its clients home. But when the mini-cab containing Abdul Rasheed Majekodumni arrived to take her home, he refused to let her into the cab.

Mrs Vernon said: "This experience was very upsetting. I was tired and cold and just wanted to get home but this driver made me feel like I was a second-class citizen, like I didn't count at all."

She rang the firm. She said: "The owner of the minicab firm, Niven Sinclair, was also very insensitive, telling me that what had happened to me wasn't really very important, and I should have more respect for other people's culture. They have shown very little respect for my rights as a disabled person and have never once offered me an apology."

Faced with such an attitude, she sued. On October 5, 2006, Majekodumni was fined £200 ($375) by Marylebone Magistrates Court. He was also ordered to pay £1,200 ($2,251) for not complying with the regulations of the Disability Discrimination Act.

At the end of last year, a young Muslim in Leicester was granted permission to allow his guide dog to enter his mosque.

17-year old Mahomed Khatri had become blind in 2005. His sight had already been affected by myopia since birth, and when he was aged eight he lost the sight in his right eye. After 20 operations to attempt to save the sight in his left eye, he became blind as a result of a detached retina.

Mahomed said: "I didn't used to like dogs and was a bit scared of them but after some sessions with the (Guide Dogs for the Blind) association I have become more confident."

A labrador retriever is being trained for him, and if things work out, he should become the owner of the dog this summer. The dog was selected as the breed does not dribble saliva as much as other breeds. Mahomed said: "It's going to make a big difference to my life because I will become more independent and not have to rely on my parents to take me everywhere. I'll be able to go to prayers much more."

Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain held a meeting to review whether such a dog could be allowed inside a mosque. He said: "The Koran does not have rules about guide dogs but it does allow Muslims to use dogs for hunting. Therefore the line we are taking is that if Muslims can eat meat bitten by dogs then using the animals as guides should not be a problem. We will inform the congregation on why the decision was taken. Mahomed still has to complete his training to be given the dog. If he's successful, the mosque will be the first in the country, maybe in the world, to do something like this."

The dog will not be allowed inside the prayer hall at the Al Falah mosque in Leicester. Instead, it will be housed in a purpose-built kennel outside the prayer hall.

After numerous cases in Britain where restaurants and taxis owned by Muslims have refused access to blind people with guide dogs, the MCB conducted a study last year and ruled that Muslims should allow these.

Whether the MCB approves or not is irrelevant. The issue is one of the law of the land. Under Article 31A of the Disability Act such discrimination against blind people is illegal. Despite the recent musings of the Archbishop of Canterbury there is one law for all citizens in Britain, no matter their faith.

The MCB's decision is irrelevant to many Muslims in Britain. On February 6 this year, a Muslim-owned taxi company was ordered to pay £665 for refusing a blind couple and their two guide dogs to travel in a cab. ABS Aldridge taxi company, based in Walsall, is owned by Suhil Dad.

The couple, Paul and Susan Nicholls, who had been attending their daughter's wedding celebrations, had rung the company for a taxi. Initially they were told they would not be given a cab. On a second call, the person at the company attempted to charge them twice the fee for hiring a minibus.

The case was taken up by the local council's trading standards department. Mr Dad was unable to trace which of his employees had discriminated against the couple. Mr and Mrs Nicholls, who have been blind from birth, were awarded £100 compensation. They said they would donate this to the Guide Dogs for the Blind charity.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at February 22, 2008 5:27 PM

Comments

Post a comment