Today was probably one of the most interesting milestones for animal lovers in Malaysia, as Malaysians from all walks of life came together at One Utama for the "I Want to Touch a Dog" event. What's most interesting about this event , and personally make me really interested to go, was that it was founded by a Muslim man who love animals but has a fear of dogs and wanted an avenue to overcome that fear. Of course, it does not help that there is a lot of stigma among Muslims about touching dogs in Malaysia due to their religious beliefs , which has led to many Malay Muslims avoiding dogs, not because they don't like the animal, but because they are afraid of being labeled as social outcasts by their fellow Muslim friends and family.
Personally, I've also had negative experiences with some people, mostly Malays but also non-Malays, who did not like dogs and even tried to abuse my dogs. I believe that this is due to lack of education and awareness on what their religion actually teaches them about dogs. So I thought this was a great event to help educate people to appreciate dogs instead of fearing or abusing them.
To me, the biggest beauty of this event was being able to watch Muslims have a chance to come and enjoy being with their canine friends without any fear of being judged or reprimanded. And another wonderful thing was being knowing everyone there, irregardless of race and religion, was united in a single passion, i.e. Love for dogs, and everyone was really enjoying themselves, mingling and getting to know each other. This is especially heart warming considering that there have been a lot of racial and religious issues brought up the local news lately, which is quite depressing. Reading Malaysian news these days could make one thing that there's a lot of racial division in the country, but this is a van with a reminder that Malaysians are actually still a pretty harmonious bunch.
I'm really thankful to the organiser for coming up with this idea. Hopefully it'll happen more often in the future so that future generations can continue to be educated on how to handle dogs with love and kindness.
So enough blabbering, here are more pictures from the event!
Here were some of the good looking furkids that came.
The Muslims cleansing themselves after touching the dogs, in accordance with the Muslim cleansing ritual called 'sertu', with a 'sertu' coach guiding them.
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