New Iranian Islamic Commandment: Get Rid of the "Unclean" Dogs As Pets

It appears that "Man's best friend" has taken a serious hit in Iran as a top Iranian islamic cleric has issued a fatwa on dog ownership, restating the islamic claim that dogs are "unclean." You know, I've always wondered why dogs were singled out in Islam for this targeting and then it occurred to me - you know how dogs can sense things that we humans just can't? Well, I'm guessing that way back in the days of Mohammed, old Mo was probably trying to infiltrate an enemy's village when a dog sensed the evil personnified in Mo and alerted the village against him .... I guess that's my latest consipiracy theory. LOL

Anyway, here's the bad news story for dog owners in the nation of Iran, from the article at Fox News:

Iranian Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Keep Pet Dogs


NEWSCORE - A senior Iranian cleric issued a fatwa which decreed that dogs are "unclean" and should not be kept as pets, according to a report Saturday cited by Reuters news agency.

Although Islam considers canines to be "unclean" and dog ownership is frowned upon in Iran, the practice still occurs.

However, according to Iranian newspaper Javan, Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shiraz's ruling sent a clear message that keeping pet dogs in the country must end.

Shiraz deemed that keeping a pet dog was part of Western culture, and should not be copied.

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

Although contact with dogs was not explicitly forbidden in the Koran, the Islamic tradition showed that it should not occur, according to Shiraz.

"We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are unclean," he told the Javan newspaper.

According to Radio Free Europe, Iranian authorities launched a crackdown on dogs in 2007, impounding them in a so-called Tehran "prison."