“Those that disagree (who knows how many) fear to speak up lest they receive even “death to the West” etc. is great propaganda for both those tyrannical goverments”

Should read “Those that disagree (who knows how many) fear to speak up lest they receive even torture or death. Government sponsored/sanctioned mobs yelling “death to the West” etc.”

I did bad copy deleting as I was putting down my thoughts. :(

Yes, I know of the dog issue–was told of it many years ago by my sister-in-law who loves the saluki (the only “clean” dog in Arab culture) and has had a couple. I did do some googling to find out exactly what is behind this. The specifics, not just assuming. It is interesting to read up on other religions and the disagreements within them. I would say if someone fears dogs for whatever reason that is their right and right to avoid them as much as is legally possible (but they also have to decide to live by the laws of the land they occupy–in this case, the rights of those with disabilities and needing care animals trumping other laws banning dogs on buses and restaurants and groceries etc.) So don’t be a taxi driver if you are just going to pass people up because of your beliefs–where does that end? Don’t be a pharmacist if you are going to deny people lawful medical care (without a backup pharmacist who will help immediately instead of you) deemed appropriate by a licensed doc. Your religion, fantasies and phobias (I personally don’t think they are necessarily one and the same although at times the latter two often get the status of the former) trump the civil and orderly functioning of a nation that was founded on the principle of rational goverment rather than religious. Anyway, that’s kind of my soapbox.

Mittens, I think your post was a great addition and agree with most of it except for
“people may say that the koran and the hadiths say this or that and it means this or that but unfortunately for us all the ‘ religious nuts’ far out number and are louder than the tolerant, respectful muslims”

I really don’t know how you PROVE the “far out number” part. Most Muslim countries (and those from which many Muslims immigrate) are repressive tyrannies and kingdoms that merely use the name “Islamic” to legitimize themselves before populations often kept in deliberate uneducation, superstitious fear, poverty, and ignorance as well as being fed outright distortion of Islamic belief by what education is allowed. Those that disagree (who knows how many) fear to speak up lest they receive even “death to the West” etc. is great propaganda for both those tyrannical goverments and the foreign governments who use the images to show how backwards they (all) are and why the West needs to intervene in their affairs and culture (ironically, such intervention leading more Muslims to turn to fundamentalist radical groups because those groups happen to be anti-West. I don’t know how you prove the number of those too afraid to say what they think until they are allowed to opine without dire consequences.

Also, to Eh, secular Muslim doesn’t mean not very religious. Secularism does not negate religious devotion but limits how you apply religion in your life and in society, the authority and place you give religion to govern and interfere as opposed to civil law. Just because someone is very religious, doesn’t mean they are unable to question and to discard what they find inconsistent or archaic with what they regard as the core message of their faith.

Here are some more links I came across that I liked:

http://fromcairo.blogspot.com/.....islam.html

http://www.submission.org/pets/dogs2.html

http://forpeoplewhothink.org/A.....Islam.html

http://kendensar.info/Islamic_attitx.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saluki

Since the issue regarding dogs is in Hadith and not Quran, explanations of what is Hadith:

http://i-cias.com/e.o/hadith.htm

http://www.uga.edu/islam/hadith.html

Thanks for the links - very enlightening. Someone would be wise to put Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl in touch with the cab company trying to find a way to make the two factions [service dogs and Muslim cab drivers] live in harmony. No need, it would seem. Instead, the REAL issue is to educate the Muslims about fact vs. folklore.

As someone pointed out, in the very LEAST the cab driver could have explained his reasons, offered to call dispatch for an immediate replacement cab and allowed the man to either sit in cab with door open and dog outside to insure his safety or stood outside with him till the replacement cab arrived, thus insuring that the replacement cab went to the disabled man. A truly compassionate person would have offered to pay the cab fare of the man for the replacement cab ride to make up for the delay.

A pro-active cab company would have a policy in place where it is mandatory for their employees who have religious restrictions to have the cab company pay for the replacement cab to make up for the delay and to help treat disabled people with the dignity they so deserve.

the reverence for the cats as opposed to dogs most likely has it’s basis in the pagan religious beliefs that proceeded islam (mecca was a goddess worship site. same stone. but the goddess was named Allat. coincidence?)-in eastern based religious cults cats had a much higher visibility as being associated with divinity. dogs were seen in the desert as scavengers/carrion eaters -jackles. cats were kings ie lions and mother goddesses ie Bast. the negative feelings toward dogs are culturally based. in all probability there was also an acknowledged higher risk of disease transferable to humans from dogs just as eating poorly cooked pork can lead so easily to illness- thus the prohabition against eating it.dogs like pigs and shell fish are scavangers. you’re also more likely to find rabies in a dog.

muslim cab drivers are also refusing to allow people who have alcohol with them into their cabs-meaning not if you’re drinking a 40 ounce in a paper bag- but that if you came back from napa valley with a case of wine you’re not getting in their cabs.many airports sell duty free alcohol- it’s a common purchase of people getting cabs out of airports. i suppose one must hold the pork rinds too.

there are many different interpretations of ‘ muslim law’-most are actually cultural prejudices encoded in the ‘religious’ writings( the hadiths) that amassed after the writing of the koran and well after anyone allegedly associated with mohammad was long dead. genital mutilation, the covering of women head to toe in body bags( in the koran, hijab only is mentioned for the prophet’s wives), killing/hating the jews,( in the koran they are like christians considered ‘ people of the book’ ie the bible which is recognized by islam) and honor killings of alleged immoral wives, daughters and sisters do not appear anywhere in the Koran but all are oft sited as part of muslim religious law we in the west must be culturally sensitive to. even if the koran does say it’s a muslim’s duty to kill the nonbelievers it doesn’t make it alright to do when you live in the west under the secular laws of our countries.

it’s an underhanded way to sneak sharia law masked as ‘ religious tolerance’ into the west where it has no business being- but you’re culturally insensitive if you dare protest. you’re being non-inclusive. let me assure you, there is absolutely no religious tolerence of non-muslims in places like iran and saudi arabia. the man would be better off contributing the money to an animal shelter in someplace like egypt (they exist usually run by westerners) or a relief organization that helps those who are the victims of ‘ muslim law’ or a site such as dhimmi watch. many leading proponents and teachers of so called ‘ reform islam’ have encoded racism,antisemitism, the killing of homosexuals by stoning and the enslavement of women into ‘law’ . while munificent and surely well intended as an olive branch of cross-cultural friendship and understanding, the man’s donation of his settlement is ill -considered . it naively plays into the hands of those who want all the jews and ‘ heathens’ dead ,all christians made second class citizens under a global caliphate and all women wrapped in a garbage bag if theyre allowed out at all. none of it, no matter how apparently minute-like not wanting a dog in a cab-can be tolerated.it’s truly the slippery slope to wahhabism which will cheerfuly wash all your rights away with the sword.

if the cabbie refused a black passanger and claimed it was ‘ against his religious beliefs’ to do so, would anyone contribute their court settlement money to both the NAACP and the KKK or Aryan Brotherhood? i think not. what if he refused someone he thought was a jew? in iran a law was once passed that said that jews couldn’t go outside in the rain least the water that touched them would accidentally touch a muslim. this was a law passed by religious therefore political leaders- not just some random kook in a cab getting bitchy.( pun intended). there is nothing random at all about the more extreme ‘beliefs’ of SOME muslims- they are laws in some countries.

people may say that the koran and the hadiths say this or that and it means this or that but unfortunately for us all the ‘ religious nuts’ far out number and are louder than the tolerant, respectful muslims .and theyre more importantly politically powerful(in islam you cant seperate the secular political from the religious. islam demands that society is run along religious principles as set down in the hadiths and the koran). millions of humans live under islamic religious dictatorships we would consider insane, inhumane and brutal. i’m a pagan sufi ,among other horrible things, so im pretty much down for being killed by stoning( a practice taken from the jews actually who lived in the areas inhabited by mohammad and his followers). the freedoms and priviledges of the west are being manipulated and used against us for a purpose. we must not allow our democratic principles to be exploited to enslave our society to an oppressive religious doctrine with more nuts and weapons then you can imagine and liberally funded by billions upon billions of saudi oil dollars.

http://personal.uncc.edu/jvanoate/k9/k9inrel.htm

I am suggesting the above links for anyone interested in the background about this and what Islam actually says about dogs–not what religious nuts say it says.