"some youths have been buying them and parading them in public"
Posted on 09/09/2006 7:20:13 AM PDT by Valin
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's religious police, normally tasked with chiding women to cover themselves and ensuring men attend mosque prayers, are turning to a new target: cats and dogs. The police have issued a decree banning the sale of the pets, seen as a sign of Western influence.
The prohibition on dogs may be less of a surprise, since conservative Muslims despise dogs as unclean. But the cat ban befuddled many, since Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Muhammad loved cats - and even let a cat drink from his ablutions water before washing himself for prayers.
The religious police, known as the Muttawa, have the role of enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic code. Its members prowl streets and malls, ensuring unmarried men and women do not mix, confronting women they feel are not properly covered or urging men to go to prayers. But the government also gives the Muttawa wide leeway to enforce any rules they deem necessary to uphold the social order.
The decree - which applies to the Red Sea port city of Jiddah and the holy city of Mecca - bans the sale of cats and dogs because ''some youths have been buying them and parading them in public,'' according to a memo from the Municipal Affairs Ministry to Jiddah's city government. The memo, obtained by The Associated Press, urges city authorities to help enforce the ban.
Pet owning is not common in the Arab world, though dogs are kept for hunting and guarding. In large cities around the Middle East, stray dogs often wander the streets and are considered pests. Street cats are also plentiful, and people will often feed them or play with them - but it isn't a widespread custom to keep one in the home, and many cannot afford it. However, in the past decades, owning dogs or cats has become a fashion statement among Saudis. Showing off a Doberman, pit bull or fancy breed of feline has became a status symbol.
Conservatives decry the trend as a Western influence, just like the fast food, shorts, jeans and pop music that have become more common in the kingdom, which is ruled by the puritanical Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. They say it should be fought because it is threatening the fabric of Gulf nations.
That's all you need to know about muzzies.
what a bunch of nuts....
And Wesly Clark sez we should negoiate with them. How does one talk to people who think that owning Fido or Puff is a sin against their God.
A wee bit less than human, these Wahhabi's.
Goats will suffice when one of the 72 virgins aren't handy.
As long as they wear their burkhas they'll be allright.
The dog is cute but that woman is positively scary. I don't know exactly what's wrong with her, but there really is something badly off center there.
As someone who's lived in an arab country for several years, I can honestly say that a goat would be preferable to the virgins. There's an old joke that goes, "What's the penalty for raping an arab woman?" The answer: "You have to rape her again."
In other words, if something brings you pleasure - DON'T DO IT!
I can see why they worship death, I would want to die too if I were one of them.
Dog haters. Dogs probably know why.
Now if we can just get those pesky Koreans to ban eating them ...
In the end the West will win through the spread of its culture and democracy. It can't be stopped.
Do they make the female pets wear a burka?
One dog is better than a hundred musslims.
Why don't they just require the cats to be covered and the dogs to howl toward Mecca?
What is an acceptable Islamic pet? Oh, I forgot, that's what women are for.
The burka was actually invented to make women MORE attractive to Arab men, by covering them in wool from head to toe. Its not a cover-up, its a sheep costume.
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