Three things we learned from: The backlash against ‘I Want to Touch a Dog’

By admin-s On Oct 27, 2014

Last Saturday, pharmacist Syed Azmi Alhabshi was forced to apologise publicly for organising a canine-awareness event that gave many of his fellow Malay Muslims the chance to touch a dog for the first time in their lives.

Zurairi AR, MMO

In his apology — made at a news conference that was ostensibly his first public appearance since receiving slanderous vitriol and death threats — Syed Azmi who inadvertently became the event’s “face” said he had not intended to make Muslims stray from their faith. The storm however, has not abated.

Here are three things we learnt from the furore that resulted from the “I Want to Touch a Dog” event.

Dogs are really a big deal for Malaysian Muslims

The violent backlash from some in the local Muslim community might have shocked a lot of non-Muslims, including the global community. The news was carried by many international news publications and held a tone of disbelief.

The situation might have even shocked Muslims abroad. For Muslims elsewhere, these hounds are common pets which they keep as guide dogs, guard dogs and hunting companions despite being tagged najis, or ritually unclean status in Islam.

In Malaysia, however, the stigma associated with dogs is seen to be a graver sin than drinking alcohol, only slightly below the “biggest sin” of all — eating pork.

Detractors have questioned Syed Azmi’s motive for holding the event, claiming that a dog’s role in Islam is clear, and there is no mistreatment of dogs in Malaysia among Muslims.

However, the degree of which some Malaysian Muslims went berserk after seeing photos of Malay girls in headscarves hugging dogs proved Syed Azmi right. There is a huge negative perception towards dogs among Muslims here.

Religious authorities are clawing for control

Some in the Malay-language media were quick to highlight reactions from the country’s various state muftis and religious authorities, with headlines insinuating that the event had “insulted Islam” and demanding the Muslim participants “repent”.

It was clear from the response of Datuk Othman Mustapha, the director-general of the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim), that the religious authorities were at a loss to deal with the younger set of Muslims who chafe at the way they are being “managed” and not allowed to question how their creed is practised here.

The authorities reacted the only way they know how. They insisted that within the country’s borders, not only is the Sunni denomination and the Shafi’i school of jurisprudence the only right way to practise Islam, but Muslims must also accept only Jakim’s interpretation of the religion.

Instead of self-reflecting on why the event resonated with the Muslim participants who made up some of the 200-odd participants at the dog event, some Muslim leaders resorted to creating bogeymen of the organisers, accusing the latter of being tools of a so-called “liberal” conspiracy to divide the Muslim community.