This was the headline from the Daily Mail. The hate-paper went on to say: "A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims." Unsuprisingly, the story isn't true. Dr Marranci explains why...

Have you read about the puppy dog, the police in Dundee and the Muslims? Do you want to know what actually happened and what is going on? If so, you can continue to read my post. As an anthropologist working and living in this region of Scotland, I may clarify some points. However, before explaining what actually is going on, let me highlight some important aspects. In a previous post I complained how the mass media paid attention to the most slight, trivial and ridiculous event involving Islam and Muslims in this country and in the world, but become shy and extremely politically correct (together with their readers) when reporting racial, nazi-inspired crimes, such as the case of the Nazi pedophile Mr Gilleard, a white, Christian, uber-British nationalist.

I did not need even one day to have another clear evidence of this fact. Today all the national newspapers are reporting the ridiculous storyof the apologies offered by the Tayside police to the Muslim community for a postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman’s hat issued for their new non-emergency telephone number. Of course, immediately the voices of the readers rise in indignation for such a ‘politically correct’ response of the police force. I leave it to you to read some of the comments, which also seem repetitive and similar from one newspaper to the other. International broadcasters, such as Fox News, have reported this little ridiculous piece of news in sensationalist terms.

I remind you that no international TV news or newspapers had reported neither the Mr Sandalo ‘Love Jesus and kill Muslims’ terrorist network, nor the crusading nationalist plots of Mr Gilleard.

Ask yourself why a stupid contested postcard should become an international case more than the evidence that dangerous, fanatic Nazi and Fascist movements are exploiting the much constructed fear of Islam in order to promote their ideology and find support among the general public by targeting Muslims? The reason is that the above news should be read within a meta-discourse which says ‘Here’s more evidence that we are becoming all Dhimmi’ as the new Christian prophets (among which we can mention Bat Ye‘or, and Fallaci&co. This is the real reason for which newspapers should report such trivial stories (and possibly undermine others).

Now, let me summarise the story. The police force in Tayside, of which Dundee is part, has issued a new card to be displayed in public places and shops to remind people of their new telephone number. Mr Mohammed Asif, the Muslim councillor of Dundee City, but also a member of the Tayside Joint Police Board, has advised the police force that the new card, because it displays the image of a black cute puppy dog, ‘may be not be welcomed’ by some members of the Muslim communities owing shops, and consequently they may not display it.

Now this was the advice of a member of the Muslim community who had some knowledge of the community and was for this reason part of the Tayside Joint Police Board. As such, he had not only the right but actually the duty to advise the police on such a matter. 

I find interesting how the advice of a member of the Joint Police Board becomes the official complaint of an entire community, and how immediately newspapers remind their readers how Islam dislikes dogs. Again we are witnessing disinformation through essentialisation (for more you can read my book The Anthropology of Islam). First of all, Mr Asif was providing advice.

The reason for this advice is that the majority of the Muslim shopkeepers in Dundee are of South Asian background, particularly from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Without going too much into detail here, we can say that some Muslims from these areas dislike dogs, and see them as polluted (or are just scared of them, with some good reasons when we consider that many dogs in these countries are less than domestic). Yet the newspapers report that all Muslims dislike dogs because they are forbidden in Islam. Well, nothing is more easy to disprove than these misleading reports.

Muslims are different and likewise their Islam. I will use as an example to contradict the stereotype of Muslim-dog-hatred, not just some ‘soft-core’ Sufis, but nothing less than the most respectable Wahabi families: The Saudi family and their  love for  Salukis, read the article and laugh at those whom insist in claiming that all Muslims hate dogs! 

 I have not received any complaint about this card, and other sources have confirmed that many Muslims in Dundee have been very surprised about the scandal.  Clearly the Daily Mail and others are trying to use this ridiculous story for scare-mongering the Scottish population. 

Yet to have a totally clear picture about this story, you need more relevant information. We have to go back to 2006, in December, when the Tayside Special Branch seemed to become over-zealous in its activities in Dundee. I have personally collected stories of frightened students being fully interviewed, without real reason, by officers, and even asked how many times they went to the mosque, to which mosque, and how many times they prayed: all useful questions to find and recognise terrorists! Of course, these useless interviews and the apparently clumsy start of the new police unit, did not win the hearts and minds of the Muslims in Dundee. The result was tension and lack of collaboration.

Mistake after mistake, the relationship between the Muslim communities in Dundee and the police in general were at the lowest level; this despite the fact the no evidence was ever found of criminal activities and the Scottish Muslim communities in Dundee are among the most law abiding in the country.  

Now, we can clearly understand what really has happened in the police-card affair.   One Muslim councillor, who happened to be also part of an advisory organ of the Tayside police forces, knowing of the very fragile relationship between the local police force and the overall Muslim community in Dundee, has advised the police about the possible reactions, from some members of the communities, to the advertisement. The police in Dundee, which cannot renounce the assistance of the Muslim communities to fight violent extremists, decide to take the safer route, and apologise for the eventual offence to some of the members. 

Hence, there are some important conclusions to be stressed. This ‘affair’ is a very local one and influenced by local politics and previous local situations. It has nothing to do with Islam disliking cute dogs (as I have clearly proved). The majority of the Muslims in Dundee are surprised to read this stupid and ridiculous story no less than you and will agree with the majority of the people living in this country that this is a trivial case. Finally, we have another example of how the mass media are manipulating (some for money, others for political ideology) reality in order to convince the majority of non-Muslims that we are ready for Dhimmitude and our politicians and even police forces are not really able to prevent this and defend the Christians values of this country as well as our (not-so Christian) ‘style of life.’  

Once again, thanks to the irresponsibility of the mass media and their partial (or misleading) reporting,  Muslims find themselves in the middle of a sensationalism which will even further damage their lives and will see even more, in Dundee, their children bullied at school and in the street. At the same time, the fantasy scaremongering of a Dhimmi conspiracy will offer the Sandalos and the Gilleards more hopes for their dream of a Nazi-Christian-Aryan nation.

Source: Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist  

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