Faith Central: Police puppy considered "ritually" unclean

Police sniffer dogs will have to wear bootees when searching the homes of
Muslims so as not to cause offence.

Guidelines being drawn up by the Association of Chief Police Officers
(Acpo)
urge awareness of religious sensitivities when using dogs to search for
drugs and explosives. The guidelines, to be published this year, were
designed to cover mosques but have been extended to include other
buildings.

Where Muslims object, officers will be obliged to use sniffer dogs only in
exceptional cases. Where dogs are used, they will have to wear bootees
with
rubber soles. "We are trying to ensure that police forces are aware of
sensitivities that people can have with the dogs to make sure they are not
going against any religious or cultural element within people's homes. It
is
being addressed and forces are working towards doing it," Acpo said.

Problems faced by the use of sniffer dogs were highlighted last week when
Tayside police were forced to apologise for a crime prevention poster
featuring a german shepherd puppy, in response to a complaint by a Muslim
councillor.

Islamic injunctions warn Muslims against contact with dogs, which are
regarded as "unclean".

Police dogs at present are issued with footwear only at scenes of
explosions
to prevent them injuring their paws on broken glass.

Ibrahim Mogra, one of Britain's leading imams, said the measures were
unnecessary: "In Islamic law the dog is not regarded as impure, only its
saliva is. Most Islamic schools of law agree on that. If security measures
require to send a dog into a house, then it has to be done. I think Acpo
needs to consult better and more widely.

"I know in the Muslim community there is a hang-up against dogs, but this
is
cultural. Also, we know the British like dogs; we Muslims should do our
bit
to change our attitudes."

John Midgley, co-founder of the Campaign Against Political Correctness,
said: "The police are in effect being overly sensitive to potential
criminals and not being sensitive enough to the public at large who need
to
be protected. These sort of things have a counter-productive effect
because
they cause huge friction between different communities."

Caroline Kisko, of the Kennel Club, said: "We would not condone any
attempt
to make search dogs wear special clothing, which could cause them
distress."


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4276489.ece



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Give us back our countries: Stop the criminal multiculturalism ideology
enforced upon the white world against the will of its peoples, leading to
mass immigration from the third-world: Mul-cul + pol-corr = lethal mixture
for the white world. And give us back our freedom: Dismantle all
surveillance technology.