Saudi Religious Police Declare War on

[jdobbin]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14738358/

Dogs and cats are western influenced.

[jbg]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14738358/

Dogs and cats are western influenced.

Sub-medieval all the way. Way to go, back before the age man domesticated his "best friend".

[betsy]

Now they've done it! The muslim fundamentalist western-haters had just made a major blunder.

You don't tangle with pet and animal rights activists!

[kimmy]

I assume that this equating of pets with the infidel is the direct and inevitable result of Paris Hilton wandering about with that pet rat or whatever that thing is that she uses as a live fashion accessory.

It's odd, though, given that there are a number of stories about Mohammed himself having a pet cat named Muezza.

One story is that one day when Mohammed heard the call to prayer and found that his cat was sleeping on the sleeve of his robe, Mohammed cut the sleeve off of his robe rather than disturb his cat's sleep.

Another is that a cat carried away an asp that had hidden itself in Mohammed's robe.

Another has that Mohammed's cat alerted him to the presence of a would-be assassin.

Rough week for the Prophet. First, bylaw enforcement apparently decides to overrule Mohammed's views on allowing women to pray at the cube. And now bylaw enforcement wants to ban the Prophet's pet from the kingdom. If Mohammed showed up in Mecca tomorrow, parking enforcement would probably have his flaming chariot tagged and towed.

-k

[August1991]

It's odd, though, given that there are a number of stories about Mohammed himself having a pet cat named Muezza.

My understanding is that Mohammed so loved cats that he left his mark on the forehead of all tabbies in the form of the letter M.

[kimmy]

It's odd, though, given that there are a number of stories about Mohammed himself having a pet cat named Muezza.

My understanding is that Mohammed so loved cats that he left his mark on the forehead of all tabbies in the form of the letter M.

I've heard that tale as well ...but it begs the question of which language Mohammed would have written his initial in, and whether his initial actually looks like an "M" in that language. Would Mohammed have used a Latin M if he was drawing his initial? So I wasn't sure whether whether to think of that story as a part of Mohammed folklore, or something that was thought up elsewhere.

-k