Some pretty awful news today got Muslims talking about the amazing wisdom of Islam in informing mankind of the dangers of dog saliva.
According to a Miami News Channel, 48-year-old Greg Manteufel ended up in hospital with an infection from the bacteria capnocytophaga.
He caught it from his dawg.
Before we move on, let's send Greg some positive vibrations and hope he gets all the love and support he needs. It's a very sad story.
Anyway, back to the Muslims and doggies.
Lo! and Behold! This story is definitive proof that Islam is the truth. That Allah has given Muslims, the chosen people, these secrets of how to stay healthy and clean and avoid disease.
Some examples of such thinking include....
Bias and Self-Confirmation
I myself, 2 years ago would have been in agreement with the brothers above.
Until I really questioned it all.
What these tweets demonstrate is what is called Confirmation Bias.
Watch this video if you want to learn more but basically it is a very simple bias all of us are prone to - we look for things that confirm our world view - we ignore those things that don't.
So if you believe all black men are fast runners and you see a black man running fast, you think "see, it's right". If you see another black man running behind him very slowly, you think "he's an exception" and is discounted.
When you look closer though, these beliefs about dog saliva and Islam make no sense under the tiniest of scrutiny which in my case eventually led me away from "Islam".
The thing is, as a Muslim you are not designed to question this, or anything. To be fair I find most people from most persuasions very similar in this regard - everyone is out to prove themselves right not wrong.
As a Muslim, you just accept and carry on. I however could not stop questioning if this was really something "God" would do?
It just seemed so OTT and it totally contradicted my experience of dogs - I am surrounded by dog owners where I live, and none get ill or die from dog saliva or end up in hospital. I see kids kissing dogs and dogs licking kids and nothing happens (not that I would encourage that anyway). People sleep with their dogs and nothing happens. It just doesn't tally with reality.
One of the reasons I do this blog is to give people who are pro-dog (Muslims and non-Muslims) with some basic arguments when speaking to Muslims about this.
The prejudice against dogs is ridiculous in the extreme and it has caused unnecessary suffering to a special creature and perhaps more importantly robbed from Muslims the love, care, attention, protection, etc. that dogs offer.
So let's look at some really basic arguments against this position against dogs in "Islam":
1) As the news piece says, this reaction is not the norm.
"According to the Centers for Disease Control, it’s rare but possible for capnocytophaga to cause severe infections in people with weakened immune systems, and is spread through bites or close contact with infected dogs or cats."
So Allah sent us Muhammad to warn mankind to be careful of dog saliva because it could harm some of us? Why so specific? Why not about other things in life that could harm some of us?
We are literally surrounded by things that could harm some of us, like nuts or gluten. Does Allah not care about nut allergies or those who are gluten intolerant?
2) I can hear you already - you spotted it too! CATS!!!
Yes, cats - you can also catch this very same disease from cats yet as a Muslim you are always taught that dogs are evil and cats are good because its Sunnah to keep a cat. Only dog saliva is bad.
Does Not Add Up.
Plus cats can also give you Cat's Scratch Disease which can even stop you getting a hard on. Yep - it's true - where's the warning from Allah on this one? I'm sure plenty of men would want to know this before getting a cat!
3) Why only dogs?
If Allah sent us Muhammad, the Mercy for all Mankind, and he sent with him this warning about dogs, I would like to ask Allah why he didn't warn us about all the other potentially dangerous diseases we could get from pets and other animals we may come into contact with?
I don't get it. It may have saved this dude from getting the plague from his pet cat, or this boy getting tularemia from his hamster or this guy from getting Parrot Fever from his, well....parrot. If you are a farmer or shepherd and are allowed according to Sharia to keep dogs for protection, then why have we not been warned of Q Fever?
You can keep punching holes into the argument all day long.
At the end of the day, Islam has come to this position on dogs due to the hadith. The Quran says diddly squat about dogs other than one that slept in a cave for hundreds of years with 7 Christians who were hiding out from bad guys.
It's the hadith that led early scholars to come to certain conclusions on dogs because their methodologies tied their hands in terms of interpretation. This has led to these interpretations becoming part of the faith - as if that you are not allowed to be a proper Muslim if you disagree because that would be questioning the Prophet, which by default is questioning God.
Muslims now have to apologise for Islam's bizarre position on dogs for the rest of eternity and especially so for those that live in dog friendly cultures in places such as Europe or N. America.
The intellectual scramble to legitimise the position takes all forms from those who challenge the status quo to those who will defend it to the letter, until death.
For some news stories like the one about Greg, helps legitimise and rationalise what they believe is the God given truth about dogs.
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