IKATAN Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) has published photos of a dog accompanying its owner to the launderette, claiming it is actions such as this that makes Muslim-only launderettes necessary.

The person who submitted the photos was a fellow customer, who said the dog was alternately left on a chair and allowed to roam while the owner did the laundry, said the Muslim rights group on its website, Ismaweb.

Isma did not say when or where the photos were taken.

Muslims are prohibited from coming into contact with dogs, which are considered haram, or unclean.

Isma is fighting back in a controversy sparked by a Muslim-only launderette in Muar, which has since taken down a sign barring non-Muslims from using the washing machines, following a sharp rebuke from the Johor sultan.

Muslim clerics and politicians had largely condemned the shop’s policy, saying there is no place for religious discrimination in a moderate and progressive country such as Malaysia.

Some warned that such practices would foment extremism.

Isma called those who condemned the Muslim-only policy “hypocrites”

“It is wrong to open a shop for Muslims only. But it is not wrong to bring a dog or a pig into a shop patronised by Muslims? It is not wrong to place a dog in a shopping trolley in a mall?,” it said, the last a reference to pictures of a dog being wheeled around in a trolley in a local shopping mall a few years back.

This is a Muslim country, yet the unbelievers can do anything but the Muslims cannot, Isma said. – September 29, 2017.