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"There isn't any Islamic basis for taking issue with a simple picture of a little puppy," Saeed said. (Google photo) |
CAIRO — Scottish Muslims rushed to calm the uproar that emerged over a picture of a dog on a promotional police postcard after a local Muslim councilor argued that the puppy ad would be offensive to the Muslim community because of their religious beliefs.
"There isn't any Islamic basis for taking issue with a simple picture of a little puppy," Osama Saeed, chief executive of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation (SIF), told The Scotsman on Wednesday, July 2.
The controversy erupted on Monday, when Mohammed Asif, the Muslim councilor of Dundee city, expressed reservations over a postcard advertising the new non-emergency phone number of the police in the eastern coast region of Tayside.
The ad pictured a dog sitting in a police hat and telephone on a card highlighting the police force's new contact number.
Asif, also a member of the Tayside Joint Police Board, said the ads, already distributed throughout the region, could be offending to Muslims.
"My concern was that it's not welcomed by all communities, with the dog on the cards." Asif said.
But Scottish Muslim leaders dismissed the counselor's comments, affirming that religious sensitivity has nothing to do with a picture a dog.
"This seems to be a complaint based on culture rather than religion," Saeed, the SIF leader, said.
"Dogs can be used to hunt or farm, or even as guide dogs for the blind," a member of Dundee-based Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies agreed.
"I would not say a picture of a dog is offensive, but people have different sensibilities and different limits."
Islam forbids Muslims to keep dogs as pets. However it is permissible to have a dog for legitimate benefits such as hunting or guarding.
Uproar
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Muslim homeowners and local businesses were asked to display the ad to calm the uproar.
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The controversy has already caused uproar, especially after the Tayside Police decision to scrap the dog promotion.
"We did not seek advice from the force’s diversity adviser prior to publishing and distributing the postcards," a spokesman for the Police force said.
"That was an oversight and we apologize."
Local newspapers said that Muslim-owned shops were rejecting the advert due to the puppy's picture, triggering angry reactions from people across the region.
"Tayside Police may be forced to spend valuable funds on changing the postcard they have produced to advertise their new non-emergency phone number because a certain section of the community consider a dog to be dirty," Steve Ross, a resident of Fleming Gardens, told The Courier.
"Just let’s get on with our lives and preserve British culture."
"This story is absolutely unbelievable—what wrong have the police done?" another resident told the paper.
"How can anyone find an image of a dog offensive? Absolutely no apology is necessary."
But Muslims refuted the reports that the community is showing rejection for the picture to be displayed in shops or public places.
Mahmud Sarwar, trustee of the Scottish Islamic and Cultural Centre and the Dura Street mosque, called on homeowners and local businesses to display the ad in the public interest.
"I’ve not heard anything about that from members of the community," Sarwar told The Courier.
"I was round some shops today and at the mosque and nobody has said anything about it."
Mr Sarwar said that religious sensitivities would prevent displaying the postcard on a building of religious significance but there was nothing to stop them being displayed in shops.
"There is not a dog—it is just a picture."
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