Iran’s Dog Walkers Could Face 74 Lashes in Criminalisation of Pet Ownership

THE GUARDIAN: Proposed law to prevent Iranians from keeping animals deemed unclean is latest crackdown on ‘western cultural invasion’

A group of Iranian MPs has proposed making it a criminal offence to keep dogs as pets or walk them in public, with offenders subject to 74 lashes or a fine.

Iran’s reformist Shargh newspaper reported on Thursday that 32 members of parliament, who are mostly affiliated to the conservatives, had put forward the proposal for the legislative body to vote on.

If the bill passes the Majlis (Iranian parliament), “walking dogs, trading them or keeping them at home will be punishable by 74 lashes or a fine of 1m to 10m Tomans [an equivalent of £200 to £2,000],” Shargh said.

“Walking and playing with animals such as dogs and monkeys outdoors and in public places are harmful to the health and the peace of other people, especially kids and women, and are against our Islamic culture,” the bill says.

Elias Naderan, Esmail Kowsari and Fatemeh Alia are among influential Iranian parliamentarians who support the proposal. » | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Thursday, November 06, 2014

Nazis Tried to Train Dogs to Talk, Read and Spell to Win WW2

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Nazis tried to train dogs to talk, read and spell to help them win World War II, it has been revealed.

The Germans viewed canines as being almost as intelligent as humans and attempted to build an army of fearsome 'speaking' dogs, extraordinary new research shows.

Hitler hoped the clever creatures would learn to communicate with their SS masters - and he even had a special dog school set up to teach them to talk.

The incredible findings show Nazi officials recruited so-called educated dogs from all over Germany and trained them to speak and tap out signals using their paws.

One mutt was said to have uttered the words 'Mein Fuhrer' when asked who Adolf Hitler was.

Another 'spoke' by tapping letters of the alphabet with his paws and was said to have speculated about religion and learnt poetry.

The Germans hoped to use the animals for the war effort, such as getting them to work alongside the SS and guard concentration camps to free up officers.

The bizarre 'Wooffan SS' experiment has come to light after years of painstaking research by academic Dr Jan Bondeson into unique and amazing dogs in history.

Dr Bonderson, from Cardiff University, visited Berlin to scour obscure periodicals to build up a bizarre - but true - account of Nazi ideas. » | Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Is a Religious Bus Ban on My Dog Right?
THE TELEGRAPH: On two occasions last week my dog was barred from London buses on religious grounds, writes Judith Woods.

On two occasions last week my dog was barred from London buses, not because she's particularly fierce or big, but on religious grounds. A friend and I had taken her to the park, and as I went across to the grocer, my friend took Daisy, a Manchester terrier, to the bus stop.

As they tried to board the bus, the driver stopped her and told her that there was a Muslim lady on the bus who "might be upset by the dog". As she attempted to remonstrate, the doors closed and the bus drew away. Read on and comment >>> | Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Excellent comments to this piece:

Can anyone loan me a dog? I normally get the tube but I suddenly have the urge to ride on buses with a canine friend All Day Long.

Seriously, it's time people started forthrightly asserting their rights and putting down attempts by anyone to oppress others and control public space to accord with their minority and extreme private beliefs.

The trick in doing so is to avoid pejorative language (*ahem*, aliens), aggression and anything else that allows the media and professional complainers to paint people standing up for this country and its traditional beliefs and practices as Nazi wingnuts. So we need to learn the art of complaining politely, firmly, efficiently and effectively, just like some other organised groups do. As a first step someone should set up a website--know your rights and how to enforce them.

As a culture we are generally tolerant and "mustn't grumble", but confronted with people who seem to take an affirmative joy in ramming their views down the throats of others it's time to use the system as effectively as they do.

This kind of issue has broader implications for the whole unwanted multi-culti experiment, but I think it's best to focus on what can be practically done about the situation right now. – James2

The blowback against Moslem chauvinism needs to start soon, it needs to be severe, and it needs to be unremitting. We simply cannot allow centuries of progress towards tolerance and accommodation to be steam-rollered by barbarians. At the bare minimum, it needs to be made crystal clear to Moslem denizens of Britain that if they do not extend the courtesies of cultural normality to their fellows then they will be ostracised, vilified and in the more extreme cases, prosecuted. The stealth-Jihadism that multiculturalism allows is poison. Justice Jackson said the Bill of Rights was not a suicide pact. Our tolerance for the commingling of bigots in our midst should not be seen as a license for their bigotry. – David Gillies [Source: The Telegraph]

Iran Cleric Says Dogs "Unclean" and Not to Be Kept as Pets
REUTERS: A senior Iranian cleric has decreed dogs are "unclean" and should not be kept as pets -- a move aimed at discouraging Western-style dog ownership in the Islamic state, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Dogs are considered "unclean" under Islamic tradition but, while relatively rare in Iran, some people do keep them as pets.

By issuing a fatwa -- a religious ruling -- Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi has sent a clear message that this trend must stop.

"Friendship with dogs is a blind imitation of the West," he was quoted as saying in Javan daily. "There are lots of people in the West who love their dogs more than their wives and children."

Guard dogs and sheep dogs are considered acceptable under Islamic law but Iranians who carry dogs in their cars or take them to public parks can be stopped by police and fined.

The Koran does not explicitly prohibit contact with dogs, Shirazi said, but Islamic tradition showed it to be so. "We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are unclean." Read on and comment >>> Robin Pomeroy, Tehran; Editing: Matthew Jones | Saturday, June 19, 2010

Why Muslims Hate Dogs

British Teacher Awaits Judge's Ruling on 'Blasphemous' Teddy Bear
If these people are upset about children naming teddy bears 'Muhammad', I wonder how they would feel if people started naming their dogs 'Muhammad'? What if the West decided to have an international ‘Name Your Your Dog Muhammad Week’? Then they they really would have something to bitch and moan and whine about!

TIMESONLINE: A British teacher facing 40 lashes in Sudan over a school teddy bear named Muhammad will discover today whether she will be charged with blasphemy.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, is being questioned for a second day by police in Khartoum on suspicion of insulting Islam's prophet for allowing her seven-year-old pupils to give the toy the name of the prophet. >>

Mark Alexander