Well, I've been meaning to write this journal entry for sometime now. I could just write it straight away on January 1st, but I decided to actually wait until the Lunar New Year, as opposed to Solar New Year, to really hammer my point.

As you know, I like dogs. =3 Well, same with every other animals out there, too -- cats, mice, rats, rabbits, eagles, owls, ravens, etc.. I can see why dogs are also known as Man's Best Friends, and rightfully so: humans and dogs appear to have a symbiotic relationship with each other. For centuries, in every culture imaginable, we see humans and dogs help each other out. Dogs are useful for hunting, to herd sheep together, even to look for any survivors in a collapsed building. They are rightfully Man's Best Friends.

Well, here's the problem: I'm also a Muslim.

For some reason, it seems that we Muslims are the only group of people in the world that despises Man's Best Friends. =_= If dogs are tribbles, then Muslims must be Klingons. And that's not okay. >_< It is said that dogs are considered "unclean" -- never mind the scientific proof that dog saliva is cleaner than humans'; dogs are still considered "filth".

This terrible stigma is what caused dogs to be mistreated among us Muslims here in Malaysia. There were horror stories, such as some Muslim kids throwing rocks and other rubbish at these poor canines within the compounds of their owners' homes. Dogs got beaten-up are not unheard of, either.

In 2014, there was an organized event called "I Want to Touch a Dog". This event gave Muslims in Malaysia the rare opportunity to touch these cute little canines, in an attempt to dispel the myth surrounding dogs, and to show that, yes, it's okay to touch dogs, as long as you know how to wash yourself properly afterwards and the right steps to be taken to do so. It's a nice event, really. It was a big hit among Muslims who visited that event. Sadly, that even was also criticized and ridiculed by these anti-canine Muslims, with some even went as far as claiming it to be an "insult to Islam", and the organizer even received multiple death threats for organizing it. You can read the news here: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/world/asia/dog-petting-event-underlines-malaysias-culture-wars.html

Well, if it wasn't thanks to these restrictions, I would've been a dog person. I admit, I used to dislike dogs before, but that's only because, as a kid, I was taught that way. But then, as years go by, I realized just how wrong that kind of thinking can be. After all, aren't dogs God's creation, too? Why would He create an animal just to be despised against? It just doesn't make sense! x_o;; (I don't think He created pigs just to be despised at, either, but that's an entirely different story. I don't hate pigs, either. I just avoid them for religious reasons.)

In Warframe, I have a virtual pet Kubrow, which I named Ruff. Kubrows are essentially dogs in Warframe. At present, Ruff is currently the closest thing I presently have to a pet dog, even if he's just a fictional creature in a fictional world created by Digital Extremes.

Also, it might not be obvious, but I incorporated some canid features to my fursona. Well, to be precise, his design is a mixture of several of my favorite animal species together, including cats, rabbits and -- that's right -- dogs. It's my way of secretly sneaking in my fondness for dogs into my fursona's design.

Happy Year of the Dog, people.