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Puppy - Source: ONE News
Islamic leaders are working to break down misconceptions about
dogs after a spate of complaints that Muslim cab drivers are
banning guide dogs.
Cultural and religious beliefs prevent Muslims from coming into
contact with dogs' saliva because it is considered unclean.
Guide Dogs Queensland (GDQ) threw open its doors to a group of
clerics from the Imam Council of Queensland (ICQ) in Brisbane, in
an Australian and possibly world first to promote the value of dogs
to vision-impaired Muslims.
While at the same time, through Muslim leaders, they hope to dispel
some fears that Muslims may have of dogs.
GDQ Rehabilitation Service manager Bashir Ebrahim, a Muslim
himself, said the belief about dogs came from religious and
cultural upbringing but varied in extremes, depending on the
individual.
"Dogs are regarded as unclean from the saliva," he said.
"When that fluid touches you then you are regarded as unclean, so
you'd need to wash."
There are different schools of thought about touching, where some
Muslims are happy to have the hair on them if they brush against a
dog, others are not.
But it was important for those exposed to dog hair to clean
themselves after, he said.
He said it was dangerous to assume that every taxi driver who
rejected guide dogs from cabs was Muslim.
"It may be that there is a higher percentage (of Muslims not
allowing dogs in taxis), but there are access rights that have been
breached by all members of society," Ebrahim said.
Just last week, hotel owners on the Gold Coast banned a guide dog
from their establishment, he said.
In Islam it is permissible to have working dogs, such as guide
dogs, guard dogs or hunting dogs.
But in Australia, there is only one vision-impaired Muslim, from
Victoria, who has a guide dog.
After watching the dogs at work, the Imams sang the praises of the
dogs and pledged to work with GDQ.
Imam Mohammed Akram Buksh, who was part of the delegation, said
special rooms had been set aside outside of mosques where Muslims
could leave their dogs while they went inside to pray.
"If a person has a dog for a valid reason there is no problem at
all," he said.
"At the end of the day I think these dogs are tremendous.
"God Almighty has created the dog and without a doubt this certain
breed has changed many things in many people's lives and is a great
benefit in society. Even in Muslim society."
Ebrahim said a national gathering of Imams was next on the
agenda, as well as an education program for Muslim schools, which
was supported by the Muslim leaders.
"The Imams Council of Queensland endorse what we are doing,"
Ebrahim said.
"They want to partnership with us in terms of getting the message
across to the whole Muslim community as well as encourage (vision
impaired) people to seek our services."
