Is DD right about muslims being forbidden to keep dogs as pets?

[MummikinsOopNorth]

She came home from school saying that Islam forbids it's followers to keep dogs as pets or companions, unless they are kept for a purpose, such as hunting or guarding. Is this right? Thanks in advance

luckily, beeny, a simple, 'no dogs' works round here without having to resort to religion.

if no one else is willing to walk it, shovel its shit, groom it, ferry it to and from vet, work extra hours to kennel it when we go away and pick up after it, we're not having one.

A lot here about dogs in Islam.
As far as I can tell, Islam considers dogs far more impure than pigs, tbh.

Given that dogs regular snaffle rubbish on streets or lick their genitalia, then yeah, I could see their saliva being classed as impure...

I like dogs on a one-to-one basis, but I feel livid about constantly encountering their excretion in public places.

There was a TV programme on a while back. documentary about Saudi Arabia. They spent a lot of time profiling a minor prince who lived in the country's breadbasket, and he was talking about how the country has to modernise in its own way -- without outside pressure, thanks.

The prince talked about his young daughter getting a puppy, how happy she was about it! It always struck me as odd, in such a fundamentalist-tradition place, that a pet dog would be allowed. But maybe that's a sign of modernisation.

Well of course I agree with Expat but I read the thread with interest since I couldn't see how a muslim could live in this country without encountering dogs. So I doubted they could be completely forbidden. You'd be forever rushing home to have another bath.

There isn't anything wrong with keeping a dog in Islam for security/hunting etc. however they should be kept in the yard and not allowed to live in the house. They should also be looked after well, but not treated as humans.

Does that mean we don't chop their paws off every time they nick a bone?

what about fanny licking dh's should they be locked in thed yard also?

Only if they wrap their paws round your leg etC...

I call the street I live on Dog Shit Rally.
I keep my DD in the pushchair til we reach the end of the road, as she isn't nimble enough to miss the dogs muck, then I weave the pushchair in, out and around the mess.
It makes me livid, and im sick of it.

illget you-I cant stand dog shite in the same way I can't stand human shite either.It is not the poor dogs fault but their lazy owners. Dogs have to go as well as us yiu know.

The Muslim lady who used to live next door but one to me had dogs-horrid little things that barked non stop.

Yes, but it's like primates and apes other than humans, if you just got rid of them, then you wouldn't have the problem of they have to go, too.

I mean, dogs have no real purpose today, except as shit producers and perhaps food.

Can anyone explain why chimps need to be here? They don't.

Get rid.

OMG, it's genocide!

Yeah, but it's like, baboons and chimps, ya know.

That's because dogs are unclean.

I won't keep them as pets either.

They drag themselves along the carpet to clean their bottoms and their owners don't follow them around with a bottle of dettol.

They lick their bottoms and then their owner's children's faces.

They have breath that smells of rotten meat and poo.

They have very pretty faces and make going to the park so much fun (I have shared my home with dogs in the past and been very fond of them) and I often think, "one day I will get a dog.

Then I remember the smell, and know that I never will!

Europeans are unusual in their love of pets in the home. It's definitley cultural too and a disdain for animals as pets in the home is widespread outside europe. I lived in the Middle East for 7 years and only very upper middle class (in the quazi-western-aspiring sense) people and foreigners kept dogs. I was made worse by the abundance of wild dogs with the risk of rabies.

My Pakistani brother had a dog in Pakistan - but as a pp mentioned - the dog was the least of his problems.

But I also lived in Africa and another time taught a lot of S American students - and they all thought Brits were insane keeping dogs or cats inside the house. When I told my Brazilian students that my cats not only slept on our bed but ate in our kitchen - they practically gagged. Some of them were staying with families who owned dogs and they were pretty horrified at sharing the house - or gasp - even the sofa with them.

Much of what Mulsims do has nothing to do with Islam and the term haram is used by many muslims very loosely. Having a dog as a pet is not haram( i.e forbidden) but it is mak-ruhe which means unfavourable for reasons to do with purity and not necessarily cleanliness as cats can be just as unclean as dogs. Because of how many muslims react when they see a dog yes one can misinterpret that as being an anti dog policy i agree! but it is just the way people culturally interpret things without much understanding.
MummikinsOopNorth your interest, as your DD's, is healthy and I suggest you keep an open mind about what you "see" when it comes to Muslims and islam. Try connecting with more learned muslims and even moderate converts for any questions you may have. You would be surprised as to how much is not religion at all but merely deposits of ages of patriarchal, largely illiterate and highly confused ideas and practices.

My dad's parents were Mexican and found keeping a dog indoors abhorrent and cruel. It stayed in the backyard.

We had a dog growing up and my dad wouldn't let her in the hosue. She had a dog house outside.

My sister has them in her house and my mum and dad find that disgusting, particularly the hairs.

Brits are also obsessed with the idea that you must walk a dog or take it a walk.

We never took ours anywhere.

No, the Holy Quran actually mentions Salukis (IIRC) and lots of Emiratis keep them. They are beautiful hunting dogs. Generally muslims tend to be wary of dogs though and do see the rest of them as unclean. We live in a muslim country so heard plenty of petty complaints about dogs being walked, etc.

Sorry, just seen the hunting and safe-guarding bit of your OP, mummikins. Would be invclined to say your dd is correct

'I avoid going to my mum's house because it stinks of dog. '

She must live next to my ILs, where you can't sit on the sofa for the goddamned dogs.

And their car! Oh, god. I can't go in it at all without wanting to vomit.

Not just Muslims who feel this way about dogs.

I don't like visiting houses where the dogs live inside, it really does feel unclean to me. We had dogs growing up but they were working animals and lived outside, I had a great dog and she was allowed to visit in the house every now and again, but was an outside dog.

I view houses where dogs live inside the same as houses where people smoke inside. Totally their home and up to them what they do with it but I won't visit if I can help it because of the yuck factor.

Cats though, well cats are different . I don't know about cutting my sleeve off, but if I am intending to sit somewhere and the cat is already there, then I go sit somewhere else. She still isn't allowed on food preparation surfaces/tables though and the dogs/smoker's house thing applies to people who let their cats do that stuff.

People who allow their animals to shit in public places and don't clean it up should be forced to eat it.

Yes, that is true. I am Englsih and was married to a muslim and went with him to visit all his family in Iraq. The only relations of his who had a dog had it purely as a guard dog and it lived outside in its own kennel.

By the way, my experience of getting to know my exH's family was that they were the most hospitable and courteous of people. E.g. when travelling with my ex-H and his family to visit some relatives in the North of Iraq, we got lost in a town and asked at a house to use their phone (this was before mobile phones were the norm). The people did not just let us use their phone, they offered to invite us in to give us drinks and food - just an example of how I found the people of Iraq. (But I realise this is not necessarily liked to being a muslim - whether it is christianity or islam, the religions both teach the same principles of being a good person. (By the way, my ex-H became my ex for absolutely no reason to do with islam)!

Sorry to ramble and go off the point!

Oh, the ILs whitter on about how I'm poisoning my childrens' minds against dogs (they love dogs).

They keep saying they're going to bring their dogs next time they come through (they know better than try to bring them to our house because our cat does not like their grotty, ill-behaved dogs), but they can't find any lodge to take them.

I have to remind them that I grew up with a dog and a father who despises cats.

Yet I can't abide dogs and adore cats so it's of no importance at all that I subject my children to some ghastly dog just so they'll like them.

i know what you mean morloth about cats being differant and not having that yuck factor.

i always see cats cleaning themselves. behind ears, cheeks, sides, legs, paws (backsides!), but you never see a dog cleaning itself in the same manner a cat does and can. I suppose thats why owners need to reguarly wash them in the bath, as the dog is unable to clean itself properly.

Just to say, in some countries it is highly impractical to have the dog living outside unless you wish to own a frozen-stiff-dead-dog and unless said dog house has electric heating in it, it will do nothing against the elements. Were people in the UK meant to shove their dogs out over the recent winter with masses amount of snow. Perhaps in many islamic countries it is more acceptable to keep them outside since its warmer.