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Fatwah against sniffer dogs

Fatwah against sniffer dogsReligious Intelligence

By: George Conger.

A prominent Muslim cleric has issued a fatwah against the use of sniffer dogs by police in Pakistan. Evidence gathered by the police using the olfactory skills of dogs was “haram”, or forbidden under Sharia law, ruled Maulana Abdul Hakim Haqqani, president of the Darul Uloom Islami Jamhuria seminary in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.

On May 3, the Peshawar-based Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Mashriq reported that in response to a query concerning the legality of evidence found by sniffer dogs, Haqqani held that under Sharia law the use of dogs to convict men was haram.

Islam does not validate the witness of a single man in any dispute, Haqqani noted, so then how could a dog’s testimony be valid. The Muslim cleric also noted that dogs and pigs were suspect creatures, and were the “favorite animals of the Jews.”

The MEMRI news service reported Haqqani had asked the government to ban the use of sniffer dogs in police and customs investigations in deference to the demands of Sharia law.