A police dog handler and his sniffer dog walk away from the GMEX (Greater Manchester Exhibition centre) in Manchester, northern England September 21, 2006, The British Labour Party's annual conference runs at the GMEX from September 23-28, 2006.
A police dog handler and his sniffer dog walk away from the GMEX (Greater Manchester Exhibition centre) in Manchester, northern England September 21, 2006, The British Labour Party's annual conference runs at the GMEX from September 23-28, 2006. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Muslims consider dogs to be "spiritually 'unclean." They want no dogs as part of airport security, even if it tends to limit the jobs of the guards, according to a British Transport Department report. Apart from Muslims not wanting dogs to touch passengers' luggage, the report also claims that Muslims object to full body scans, especially women's. They look at such scans as just an "alternative to strip search," according to qpolitical.

The controversy over sniffer dogs has been raging for quite a while in Britain. Ever since the 2005 London suicide bomb attacks, security enforced special forms of searching everywhere. News of the setback came as the Government had admitted that installing complete airport-style screening at the rail and tube stations was "not feasible." Instead, extra sniffer dogs and X-ray machines would be used to search passengers, they had said.

Hence, the British Transport Police report averred that it will continue to use sniffer dogs that can identify explosives for every passenger of any faith, as installing 100% airport style screening at subway systems is difficult. Hence, they have not removed the use of sniffer dogs, even though they are seen as a problem for Muslims on the basis of religion if the dog comes in direct contact with them.

Police sniffer dogs are trained to identify even terrorists at railway stations. However, if they do not any longer have any direct contact with Muslim passengers due to complaints that it offended their religion, they would only touch their baggage, which is not considered so unclean. The report has drawn up incidents of various trials that followed station security measures after the 2005 London suicide bomb attacks.

For a Muslim, a dog is considered "spiritually unclean," so he needs to go through the motions of repeating his washing and cleaning if he touches the dog. Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Com­mission, had once said that even if dogs come in contact with luggage, it would create a problem for Muslims getting ready to worship. They would need to wash up again. However, he had said that it should be easy to permit dogs to search passengers without actual or close contact.

British Transport Police had said that they would continue to use sniffer dogs to identify explosives, but handlers would be cognizant of "cultural sensitivities." On the other hand, many critics slammed that the complaints showed how the minority religions were trying to arm twist the British society to accept their rules and guidelines.

Earlier, Tory MP Philip Davies had said: "As far as I am concerned, everyone should be treated equally in the face of the law and we cannot have people of different religious groups laying the law down. I hope the police will go about their business as they would do normally," according to express.uk.

However, with the UK police assuring the people that they were aware of "cultural sensitivities," it is clear that some would definitely be treated as more equal than others in some respects.