hmmm

i'm going to wade into the dog story here.

the video starts with what looks like a guy, wearing his baju melayu and cargo pants, walking his dogs down a road with the 'takbir raya' playing in the background.

upon reaching their destination, the guy proceeds to wash his dogs' feet, his own feet (looking like he's doing his ablutions) and then dries himself.

then he gives his dogs kuih raya, pets them and poses for a group photo with a selamat hari raya message, reminding us that we should be kind to all species.

first things first, it's a woman in that video, not a man. not that it makes any difference, i'm just clarifying because i genuinely thought it was a guy, and found out it's a lady by the name of Maznah.

now, the uproar.

i can't comprehend it. insulting to islam? really? how? that a person is keeping a few dogs, and spending raya with them, petting them affectionately, and giving them kuih raya is insulting to islam?

i still don't see the insult. she just chose to care for a few creatures created by god himself.

i speak from memory here and recall rather clearly that, muslims cannot consume pork and dog meat. coming into physical contact with them, however, requires a specific cleansing process before you can begin your religious activities, such as praying, reading the holy quran, etc.

therein lies my perplexity: she's merely caring for them, keeping them as pets, not consuming their meat. so how is she insulting the religion?

alvin tan and vivian lee were insulting muslims, knowing full well that pork consumption and the muslim religion are like oil and water.

what alvin and vivian did, was obviously a case of 'cari pasal', yet i don't detect that notion of ill-tasted mischief with maznah and her dogs.

put in cats, we'll all be gushing at how cute they are, but because it's dogs, it becomes associated with dirtiness, the halal/haram spectrum and everybody's interpretations of what a muslim can and cannot do with dogs.

but i still don't see where is the insult coming from.

to insult is to treat or speak of something with disrespect and scorn, so how has she done that by spending raya with her dogs?

rather than fussing over a muslim who seems to have great chemistry with an animal that most other muslims in this country would have no clue how to deal with, please, pay attention to the real problems at hand.

homosexuality, alcoholism, prostitution, misguided islamic practices, drug abuse, polygamy abuse, real education of islamic principles, not mere regurgitation of holy scripture from memory are among some of the major issues our religious figures can contribute their workload to in making sure muslims in malaysia don't fall victim.

yes, while you may be accused of conservatism, won't that be a better argument to have than the rights and wrongs of a dog trainer whose alleged insult of islam isn't even clear?