My Charlie Dog Protest

I don't know why I am calling this post "My Charlie Dog Protest" but as this is a dog blog and most of us are still reeling from the shock of the atrocities in Paris and it was carried out by fanatical ignorant believers of radical Islam as opposed to being Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddist, Methodist, Janne or Jew or one of the other world religions I thought I'd share my experience(s) of Muslim dog lovers in Europe.

It does depend on where you live.

The above photograph was taken a few weeks ago in Turkey itself mainly Muslim in faith although a secular state.    There are now lots of dog lovers in Turkey including the woman above walking her two dogs in the street.   If you visited Turkey twenty years ago as I did dogs were treated appallingly and cruelty was rife.  It has taken time but the Turkish people are getting there and getting it - with dogs.

This post is NOT going to be about the horrible things that can happen to dogs in other Muslim faith countries (and certain other countries - er - South America, parts of African, in Asian, in China where they are bred to eat but that's for another time).   But according to a lot of people who interpret the Koran dogs are unclean.   They are no more unclean than humans.

But when the world was existing in the middle ages and in medieval times dogs could easily pass on rabies and disease (all these things were very visible and around a lot) and therefore it was a good public health initiative not to encourage contact so for most religions the idea that dogs, who lived alongside man for thousands of years, were unclean.    Its a good idea too to perhaps tell your little children that, to protect them, just in case they get too close and then they get bitten particularly in countries were there is little health care and you can die from a dog bite.

My own dog Muslim experiences are from the younger European generation whereas, let's say, their parents are from the older generation.    This could apply to lots of friends throughout Europe but its easier to tell one story.  

I know people in Copenhagen who are a young married couple in their thirties and they have two lovely dogs.    They are originally from Jordan.    And their parents still live in Jordan.   So when the parents come to stay which both sets do twice a year but, phew, only for two weeks each, the dogs go to a Dog Nursery cum luxury Spa.    

(A lot of their friends from other Middle Eastern countries in Denmark also do the same thing with their own loved dogs and its become a bit of a conspiracy amongst them all.)

Their house takes a whole weekend to clean to ensure there are no dog hairs around.  The dogs are already at their doggy hotel.    For two weeks before any visit the dogs are no longer allowed upstairs (the dogs usually sleep on their beds).   All the doggy stuff is shoved up into the attic.   The last day the windows are opened through the house for at least 24 hours.    The neighbours are sworn to secrecy.

The parents come and go.    They are none the wiser.  The dogs come home.  But this couple will always have dogs.   They love them and have seen what wonderful and devoted companions they are, they are Muslim, they are modern Europeans, and when they eventually have children they will probably have to come clean to their parents when their own children start to talk!   Children can't keep secrets.

The point of this story is that we in Western demoracies have always had dogs in our homes and most of us have treated them well, and we love them, but in a lot of other countries they haven't.     The internet and televison have played a huge part because of imported series which does show dogs as being part of families and these are seen worldwide.   I think Disney Studioes takes a lot of the credit too.  

It takes time to realise what wonderful creatures and companions dogs are and it takes time for one generation to supplant the next in both ideas and ideology.    It will all come.

Je suis aussi Charlie.