British Muslim body OKs taking guide dog to mosque

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A British Muslim body has ruled that a blind student can take a guide dog with him to his local mosque, a judgment Muslim and blind advocacy groups are hailing as a breakthrough. The Muslim Law Council (Shariah) UK issued a fatwa allowing 18-year-old Mohamed-Abraar Khatri to take his dog with him to the Bilal Jamia Mosque in the English city of Leicester, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London. "I hope it will should open up some doors and let other people to get a dog and not be worried of any religious aspects behind it," Khatri told British Broadcasting Corp. television in an interview broadcast Wednesday. Observant Muslims generally regard dogs as unclean and they are not allowed in mosques. It was not immediately clear whether this was the first time a dog has been allowed in a British mosque - or whether the move had any precedent elsewhere. Ahmed Rehab, a spokesman for the US-based Council on American Islamic Relations, said he had never heard of any similar incident in the United States.