Iranian cleric denounces dog owners

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Old news but interesting. If this had been posted on April 1 I might have thought it was a joke.

Was Mohammad’s “angel” afraid of dogs? OR did the dog sense evil?

Monday, 14 October, 2002, 11:57 GMT 12:57 UK
Iranian cleric denounces dog owners

Hardline conservatives are still influential in Iran

A conservative Iranian cleric has denounced the “moral depravity” of owning a dog, and called for the arrest of all dogs and their owners.
Dogs are considered unclean in Islamic law and the spread of dog ownership in Westernised secular circles in Iran is frowned upon by the religious establishment.

“I demand the judiciary arrest all dogs with long, medium or short legs - together with their long-legged owners,” Hojatolislam Hassani is quoted as saying in the reformist Etemad newspaper.

“Otherwise I’ll do it myself,” said the outspoken cleric, who leads Friday prayers in the north-western city of Urumiyeh.

“In our country there is freedom of speech, but not freedom for corruption,” he said.

Canine clampdown

Tehran journalist Mafiseh Kouhnavand told the BBC that the subject of dog ownership had been brought up many times before.

Hardline judiciary agents and police occasionally clamp down on the practice, fining owners and confiscating their pets from streets and parks.

Short-legged dogs were the target of a previous campaign

In June, police banned the sale of dogs and penalised anyone walking a dog in public. The practice is seen by conservatives as a corrupting influence of decadent Western culture.
But despite the clampdowns, dog ownership has been on the rise, especially among rich Iranians in the north of Tehran.

“Now it has reached Urumiyeh, but some people were not ready for it,” Ms Kouhnavand said.

Hojatolislam Hassani appears to be widening the scope of his anti-canine campaign.

Last year, he publicly thanked police for their policy of exclusively confiscating short-legged dogs in Urumiyeh.
 
There are also some Orthodox Jews who will not own dogs due to some passage in Scripture, I believe. (Cats are permissible.) Not all Orthodox Jews agree with this interpretation.
 
meltzerboy said:
There are also some Orthodox Jews who will not own dogs due to some passage in Scripture, I believe. (Cats are permissible.) Not all Orthodox Jews agree with this interpretation.
Click to expand...
Did I found an answer?

The Talmud does say that it is forbidden to keep a pet that will scare other people, and specifically mentions a barking dog. This is but one example of the Torah’s sensitivity to other’s feelings.

Very different reasons then keeping Gabriel away.
 
I’m Guessing the green party will back this one as recent a recent scientific article ( plz don’t ask me to cite as I can’t remember ) highlighted the massive benefit stopping pet dog ownership would have as Dogs being meat eaters need meat and of course meat is not particularly environmentally good to produce at the levels we use.😃
 
So glad you asked. That was just the beginning - no dogs in public. Please notice the date on the following article:

Iran MPs want dog ban in public and private
Agence France-Presse April 15, 2011
montrealgazette.com/life/story.html?id=4622346

ReutersTEHRAN – Thirty-nine of Iran’s 290 parliamentarians have tabled a motion to ban dogs from public places, as well as private flats, according to media reports on Thursday.

Dogs are considered “unclean” by Muslims.

However, in recent years, man’s best friend has started to appear in some wealthy districts of northern Tehran, where dog owners can be seen perambulating their pooches in streets and parks.

There is no official estimate of the canine population, but it is unlikely to exceed a few thousand.

“Walking dangerous, unhealthy or unclean animals such as dogs in places and public transport is forbidden,” states the bill, which specifies that violators will be fined $100 (69 euros) to $500 and that “their animal will be confiscated.”

Similarly, the draft bill states that “it is forbidden to keep such animals in an apartment.”

A police circular already forbids dogs from cars and from being walked in public places, but the law is barely enforced.

The MPs who signed the motion aim to take on the growing number of people who “own dogs and walk them in public, which has become a problem for society and represents a blind imitation of vulgar Western culture,” according to official news agency IRNA.
 
meltzerboy said:
There are also some Orthodox Jews who will not own dogs due to some passage in Scripture, I believe. (Cats are permissible.) Not all Orthodox Jews agree with this interpretation.
Click to expand...
About cats… I think it is fair to say that people don’t “own” cats. For example, my cat merely allows me to stay in the same house as her. 😃
 
My dog, God rest her mortal soul, used to chase anything with feathers.

Perhaps this is what Gabe feared?
 
About a year ago, the news showed a dog leading a fire truck to his master’s cabin in the forest. The cabin had caught fire, and the man was trapped. He called 911 and sent his dog to bring the help back, which he did. The video recording in the fire truck showed the dog leading and looking back occasionally to make sure they were still following him. Had it not been for the dog, the firemen would have gotten there too late, since they would have not known which forest roads to take. Then there are seeing-eye dogs. Q.E.D., dogs are man’s best friend.
 
sedonaman said:
About a year ago, the news showed a dog leading a fire truck to his master’s cabin in the forest. The cabin had caught fire, and the man was trapped. He called 911 and sent his dog to bring the help back, which he did. The video recording in the fire truck showed the dog leading and looking back occasionally to make sure they were still following him. Had it not been for the dog, the firemen would have gotten there too late, since they would have not known which forest roads to take. Then there are seeing-eye dogs. Q.E.D., dogs are man’s best friend.
Click to expand...
👍 👍 👍

I ❤️ my dog!!! 🙂
 
I asked General Beauregard, my dog, about this and he denounced all Iranian clerics.😃
 
regression said:
About cats… I think it is fair to say that people don’t “own” cats. For example, my cat merely allows me to stay in the same house as her. 😃
Click to expand...
I know what you mean. Not having a cat flap, we spend a lot of time opening and closing the door for a yowling cat.
 
schaick said:
Old news but interesting. If this had been posted on April 1 I might have thought it was a joke.

Was Mohammad’s “angel” afraid of dogs? OR did the dog sense evil?

Monday, 14 October, 2002, 11:57 GMT 12:57 UK
Iranian cleric denounces dog owners

Hardline conservatives are still influential in Iran

A conservative Iranian cleric has denounced the “moral depravity” of owning a dog, and called for the arrest of all dogs and their owners.
Dogs are considered unclean in Islamic law and the spread of dog ownership in Westernised secular circles in Iran is frowned upon by the religious establishment.

“I demand the judiciary arrest all dogs with long, medium or short legs - together with their long-legged owners,” Hojatolislam Hassani is quoted as saying in the reformist Etemad newspaper.

“Otherwise I’ll do it myself,” said the outspoken cleric, who leads Friday prayers in the north-western city of Urumiyeh.

“In our country there is freedom of speech, but not freedom for corruption,” he said.

Canine clampdown

Tehran journalist Mafiseh Kouhnavand told the BBC that the subject of dog ownership had been brought up many times before.

Hardline judiciary agents and police occasionally clamp down on the practice, fining owners and confiscating their pets from streets and parks.

Short-legged dogs were the target of a previous campaign

In June, police banned the sale of dogs and penalised anyone walking a dog in public. The practice is seen by conservatives as a corrupting influence of decadent Western culture.
But despite the clampdowns, dog ownership has been on the rise, especially among rich Iranians in the north of Tehran.

“Now it has reached Urumiyeh, but some people were not ready for it,” Ms Kouhnavand said.

Hojatolislam Hassani appears to be widening the scope of his anti-canine campaign.

Last year, he publicly thanked police for their policy of exclusively confiscating short-legged dogs in Urumiyeh.
Click to expand...
So, if Hassani was trapped in a collapsed building after an earthquake, would he “shoo” away a sniffing dog trying to locate him?
 
gmcbroom said:
What about service animals? Those specifically trained to assist people such as the Blind?
Click to expand...
As an Iranian and ex-Muslim, I can answer that. In Iran, the hardliners take the view that dogs are “najis” - i.e. unclean, this being the general view of devout Muslims worldwide too. Specifically, it’s their saliva which is considered unclean, Muslims differ on whether the fur is also unclean. However, dogs are permitted for cases such as the blind. In fact, here in the UK, a fatwa was delivered in which a blind Muslim was allowed to take his service dog into the mosque. Whether this ruling was specific to that specific case or was general, I’m not sure.

Nonetheless, Islam considers dogs to be unclean animals and Muslims are advised to stay away from them unless there is an actual need (such as guard dogs or service dogs). They are most certainly advised against keeping them as pets.

Myself, I love dogs. 👍 (Still a cat man, though. :p)
 
When I went to the ME, I was told that Muslims don’t generally own dogs as they are unclean but that they are amenable to having Saluki’s as an exception. When I was in Iraq, there were few dogs, but they all seemed to be mutts. Of the Muslim friends I have now, only one of them has a dog. It is a German Shepard.
 
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