NEWS AND COMMENT: I am not sure whether it is true that Hamas have intentionally targeted dogs in their raid from Gaza into Israel which has dominated the news media headlines since it started days ago. We do know, however, that Hamas gunmen shot a family dog when they raided the dog’s home.
Hamas gunmen approached an Israeli’s family home. As they did so the family dog bounded down the pathway which led to the front door. The Hamas gunmen rained bullets upon the dog and killed it instantly. It was videoed on the gunman’s body camera. They then entered the home and set it alight after raiding the fridge and rifling through family belongings.
Nathan Winograd, an American animal advocate and an expert on the no-kill animal shelter movement, said that the claims that Hamas are targeting dogs are “both credible and unsurprising given that dogs are considered impure by Islamicists, forbidden as companions or pets, and some clerics have issued a fatwa against petting puppies.”
It’s true that Muslims regard dogs with disdain while in complete contrast they are meant to elevate the humble domestic cat to unheard-of heights because of the Prophet Muhammad’s love of cats and how his stories are recounted in the Hadiths.
Sadly, Muslims do embrace the concept of speciesism with great commitment. Nathan Winograd adds that Hamas has been targeting children as well. He added: “In addition to targeting children and others, targeting family pets is yet another of Hamas’ many war crimes as it seeks to destroy the lives and break the hearts of Jewish families.”
Separately, but linked to this story, the BBC is being criticised for their reluctance to use the T-word. In other words, they don’t want to call the Hamas terrorists “terrorists”. That’s because the BBC is left leaning. It’s been a long-standing criticism of the BBC to provide unbalanced reporting because of their left-leaning tendencies.
Not knowing an awful lot about the problem between the Palestinians and the Jews in Israel and in Gaza, I had to check whether Hamas represents the Palestinians in Gaza because it is remarkable that a terrorist group represents 2 million people as a government and apparently, they do. Hamas won elections in 2006. So, Hamas represents the people of Gaza. Does that make all of the people of Gaza terrorists as well?
It appears that Hamas won the elections because of the citizens’ desire to end corruption in government rather than to support the organisation’s political platform (Wikipedia). Surely the Palestinians of Gaza can’t support Hamas’s terrorism?
Islamic scholars believe that dogs’ saliva is impure which means that if you are licked by a dog you have to wash yourself. If you are licked by cat is perfectly okay under Islamic rules.
An Islamic website states that “keeping dogs in Islam is not permissible except for hunting or guarding livestock and crops. It is permissible to keep dogs for guarding houses so long as that is outside the city and that there is no other means of guarding the house.”
On that basis, dogs are simply functional. They are working animals, no more. They don’t appear to be companion animals in the sense that they are regarded in the West. Although the Washington Post tells us that many Muslims believe that their scriptures approve of canine companions but also many believed that scripture discourages the keeping of dogs as companions in homes. A confuse state of affairs?
The time.com website states that traditionally dogs are considered haram (forbidden). That’s because they are dirty under the Islam faith. Conservative Muslims advocate avoidance of dogs whereas moderates say Muslims should not touch dogs’ mucus membranes e.g., the nose or mouth because they are considered to be very impure.
On an interesting note, the meat of a dog is considered unclean as is the meat of pigs, boars and swine by Muslims. This is complete contrast to the beliefs of many Asian people who kill domestic and stray dogs in a very brutal way to be eaten.
It’s remarkable how divergent human beliefs are. And how those extreme beliefs can lead to extreme cruelty against the dog and other animals. They’re just beliefs rooted in history which are entirely outdated today.
One Internet source states that dogs are considered unclean by Muslims because the Egyptian God Anubis had a canine head. And that could be the reason why dogs are never mentioned in a good light in the Bible. It makes you despair, doesn’t it?
