Cleric puts fatwa on 'unclean' pet dogs

A SENIOR Iranian cleric has decreed dogs are "unclean" and should not be kept as pets – a move aimed at discouraging Western-style dog ownership in the Islamic state.

Dogs are considered "unclean" under Islamic tradition. Some people do keep them as pets but it is relatively rare.

By issuing a fatwa – a religious ruling – Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi has sent a message that this trend must stop.

"Friendship with dogs is a blind imitation of the West," he was quoted as saying. "There are lots of people in the West who love their dogs more than their wives and children."

Guard dogs and sheep dogs are considered acceptable under Islamic law but Iranians who carry dogs in their cars or take them to public parks can be stopped by police and fined.

The Koran does not explicitly prohibit contact with dogs, Shirazi said, but Islamic tradition showed it to be so. "We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are unclean."

The interpretation of religious rules on personal conduct is a constant source of debate and potential conflict in Iran, which has been an Islamic republic since a revolution ousted the Western-backed Shah in 1979.

In a television interview last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad weighed in on the issue of the Islamic dress code, saying women who fail to cover their hair completely should not be harassed by the police.

Morality police are conducting their annual crackdown and women who reveal strands of hair are liable to be stopped in the streets.

"I wish he had not said those words about the hijab," said Grand Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati.