Fathul Bari reportedly said Islam was against dog abuse, and cited a story of a prostitute who gained a spot in heaven after giving water to a dog.– Reuters pic

PETALING JAYA, Aug 2 — Two Muslim activists have taken opposing views on whether Islam permitted its followers to keep dogs as pets, with one saying yes and another arguing that canines were allowed only for security and hunting purposes.

The debate over the role of the pooches in a Muslim household arose after a Muslim woman was arrested and interrogated on Wednesday for featuring her dogs in a three-year-old video posted online that resurfaced recently ahead of the Aidilfitri festival.

The Star Online reported today Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) chairman, Dr Farouk Ahmad Musa saying that Muslims could keep dogs as pets as there was no specific evidence or valid reason in the Quran or Hadith that prevented them from doing so.

“Anybody who treats God’s creatures with kindness should be given credit, rather than hauled up for questioning. There is nothing insulting about being kind to God’s creatures including dogs,” he was quoted saying.

But another religious scholar Dr Fathul Bari Mat Jahaya told the news portal that Islam only allowed Muslims to keep dogs for security and hunting purposes and not for pleasure.

Citing Fathul Bari, the chief executive of an Islamic group, Pertubuhan Ilmuan Malaysia, The Star Online reported that dogs were forbidden to Muslims as food.

Muslims were also required to cleanse themselves by washing with mud and water in a ritual called “samak” every time they came into contact with a dog’s saliva.

“This shows that dogs cannot be kept as pets. According to the Al-Quran and Hadith, we can keep dogs for only security and hunting. A dog can be used in the area of detecting drugs for example,” he said.

He also said that if the history of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and his comrades was studied, it would show that none of them kept dogs as pets.

Fathul Bari reportedly said Islam was against dog abuse, and cited a story of a prostitute who gained a spot in heaven after giving water to a dog.

“This is prove that everyone including Muslims should be kind to dogs,” he was quoted saying.

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has weighed in on the storm over the Aidilfitri dog video and decided it was insult to Islam, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom confirmed today.

In the 105-second video reposted on YouTube on Tuesday, dog trainer Maznah Mohd Yusof is seen walking and bathing her three dogs as the “Takbir Raya”, or Muslim call to prayer traditionally reserved for the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, plays in the background.

The juxtaposition appeared to be a reference to the wudhu, or ablution performed by Muslims before prayer; dogs are also considered unclean by adherents of the predominant faith in Malaysia.

Maznah has since been arrested and was released from remand in Johor earlier this afternoon on a court bond.

According to her lawyer N. Surendran, the dog trainer has also been questioned by the MCMC.

She is being investigated under section 4 of the Sedition Act and section 298A of the Penal Code.

Section 298A includes a variety offences, namely causing “disharmony, disunity, or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will, or prejudicing, etc., the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion.”

If convicted under Section 298A, Maznah, better known as Chetz Yusof, can be sentenced to a jail term of not less than two years and not more than five years.

After the video started making its rounds on the Internet, local news site Mynewshub.com quoted Chetz as saying that she made the video in 2010 to show that dogs are not “haram” (forbidden) as widely-believed, and that Muslims could keep canines as pets.

“Dogs are not ‘haram’; if they are wet, just ‘samak’,” she was quoted as saying.