Touching Dogs in Malaysia

"Want to Touch a Dog? In Malaysia, It’s a Delicate Subject"
By: Thomas Fuller
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/world/asia/dog-petting-event-underlines-malaysias-culture-wars.html?ref=world&_r=0

Dogs are adorable and everyone loves them, right? Well, this statement is not agreed with in many Islamic countries. A man named Syed Azmi Alhabshi from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia organized a get-together for dog lovers and their canine-averse neighbors thinking that it would be a great opportunity and a great idea for doing a public service. Hundreds of people showed up to his event. It was called “I Want to Touch a Dog” as an event on Facebook. When pictures started going on the Internet of Muslim women in head scarves happily hugging dogs, Mr. Syed Azmi became the reason for the latest occurrences in Malaysia’s culture wars. The man who wanted to have a fun get together and make people and dogs happy then received more than 3,000 hateful and threatening messages on his phone. After alerting the police, he was advised to stay at home. The Malaysian authorities described the “I Want to Touch a Dog” event as an offense to Islam. The reason for why Islams do not agree with touching dogs is because conservative Islamic groups say "they view dogs as unclean" and that they "require the faithful to undergo a ritualistic wash if they come into contact with canines" (Fuller). "All we are getting these days is how to hate an ever-growing list of people and things,” said Marina Mahathir, who is the daughter of the prime minister and a leading liberal voice. “How much energy are we to spend on hate? And how does hating anything and everything make us happy and better Muslims?”, she continues.