As I’ve mentioned before (see Dog Haters in Iran and San Francisco), Iran’s mullahs have been issuing fatwas against dogs. Dogs are targeted not only as unclean animals under shari’a law, but also as symbols of Western influence. Ads for pets and for pet products have already been banned in Iran.
Keeping – and pampering – a pet dog has become a symbolic means for dissident Iranians to protest against the regime of the mullahs.
Dogs: Iran’s symbol of rebellion
…Over the past few years, dog ownership has become yet another unlikely arena for the social and political dispute within the tumultuous politics of Iran.
It is well known that dogs, along with pigs, are considered unclean in Islam. Strictly speaking, the theology doesn’t ban their ownership, or petting; the Sunna prescribes that dogs are “pollutants”, contact with them rendering believers ritually unclean. This means that ritual cleansing is required before one is able to perform prayers. Despite this, dogs have been kept by Muslims for centuries. For example, salukis, an ancient breed of hunting dog, have historically been valued by the Bedouin, who breed them for both their beauty and their prowess in hunting.
However, having domesticated animals free to roam inside a house, contact with which would require ritual cleansing, would be quite tricky from a practical point of view for Muslims who are required to pray five times a day – even though there is no actual legal prohibition of dog ownership.
The Islamic Republic of Iran makes not only the application of the laws of Islam its constitutional duty, but also the promotion of godly behaviour its social remit. It has an Orwellian state ministry tasked with the promotion of “better behaviour” according to Islamic mores. This is the sharpest point at which the ideological state comes into contact with a people, who are at least as fun loving as they are God fearing.
…The state prohibition of anything in Iran is an open invitation for its widespread social promotion. Blond hair and garish makeup, nose jobs (of which Iran is the world capital) and extravagantly sculpted and gelled hairstyles for boys are all forms of sedition – political statements with a small “p”. The state’s legitimacy is thus questioned and openly ridiculed, at least by a certain section of the population.
As it happens, opponents of the state and its ideology also have the means and the spare time to indulge in such practices because they are, by and large, members of the affluent urban elite. But the religiously informed state disapproval of dogs in Iran has a deeper resonance than a garish pair of Dolce & Gabbana crystal-studded sunglasses. Before the Muslim invasion and conversion, Iran’s state religion was Zoroastrianism. In ancient Iran, dogs were particularly treasured and well-treated animals. The Gathas were explicit in the promotion of dogs as good and godly creatures; furthermore, the Zoroastrians believed that the bridge to the afterlife was guarded by dogs, so being nice to dogs in this world might have its reward in the hereafter.
After the Islamic conquest and the gradual but eventual mass conversion of Iranians from their national religion, disdain for dogs was not only a way for the conquerors of humiliating nation but a way for the new converts to prove their devotion to their new religion…
…Dogs are now as much symbols of safe, middle-class resistance as false eyelashes and green wristbands. Pooches have never had it so good, and rare breeds, especially small lap dogs, change hand for tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars.
An underground industry of dog beauty parlours thrives, mostly run out of private homes, as do a plethora of canine protection and welfare charities. A legal and substantial kennel industry has developed into what is fancily called “dog spas” where the middle class deposit their dogs when on holiday or, in the case of some of my conflicted relatives, when a devout auntie comes to stay…
Perhaps that is why the Iranian mullahocracy’s jihad against dogs is escalating. Some Iranian MPs are doing all they can to make it impossible for Iranians to keep dogs as pets.
In Iran, the Despots Grow Desperate
…In 1999, the then-head of the judiciary, Mullah Mohammad Yazdi, ruled that dogs must not be taken to public places. At the time, he conceded that they could be kept in people’s homes. But in June 2010, the senior hardline mullah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi issued an edict eradicating that privilege. When asked to clarify the position of Islamic religious law on the growing number of dogs kept as pets in Iran’s big cities, the senior cleric postulated that keeping pet dogs was an irrational imitation of Westerners, who often love their dogs more than their husbands, wives, and children. Makarem Shirazi also claimed that there are many references to dogs being unclean in Islam, though the Quran itself does not specifically address the topic.
The pets issue has fueled a perennially heated debate, but in recent weeks it reached a fever pitch in the Iranian parliament (Majles). Thirty-nine MPs submitted a resolution that would prohibit dog owners from walking their dogs in public. The resolution’s preamble maintains that keeping dogs and taking them for walks on the streets has become a serious problem in Iran’s big cities. The MPs claimed that dog-walking poses a public health hazard and deepens the threat of cultural corruption. If they can’t stop Iranians from owning dogs, the MPs figure, they can squeeze them out of their homes and forbid their presence on the streets.
Should the resolution pass, a dog owner caught walking his dog would be fined up to five million rials — approximately $500.
The pooch itself would face a steeper penalty: euthanization.
What’s more, if other residents of an apartment building or a house object to a fellow resident’s pet, that alone is grounds for the pet to be impounded by the regime’s authorities. And to top it off, the resolution gives full authority to the Ministry of Health to come up with a list of other animals considered dangerous or unclean.
If all this isn’t absurd enough, it was recently reported that the Iranian regime is cloning 4000 drug-sniffing dogs to help in their so-called anti-narcotic campaign. Since the regime has been outed as one of the world’s biggest heroin traffickers, Iran’s mullahs have succeeded only in supplying their subjects with yet another punchline.
Rodan Update:
There are reports of French Reconnaissance jets over Libya.
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – French reconnaissance planes flew over Libya on Saturday, in the first sign that international air strikes may be imminent while Muammar Gaddafi’s forces tried to push into the rebel-held city of Benghazi.
“There are French reconnaissance aircraft over Libya,” a French military source told Reuters at 2:15 p.m. British time.
The advance by Gaddafi’s troops into Libya’s second city of 670,000 people appeared to be an attempt to pre-empt Western air strikes which diplomats say will come after an international meeting currently underway in Paris.
Once again Western powers are coming to the rescue of Islamic forces. This is just pathetic and shows the amount of Islamic infiltration of Western governments. Islamic interests over ride the will of the voters in Europe and America.
