Man's Best Friend?

Fat(wa) chance. From MSNBC:

TEHRAN - A senior Iranian cleric has decreed dogs are "unclean" and should not be kept as pets — a move aimed at discouraging Western-style dog ownership in the Islamic state, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Dogs are considered "unclean" under Islamic tradition but, while relatively rare in Iran, some people do keep them as pets.

By issuing a fatwa — a religious ruling — Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi has sent a clear message that this trend must stop.

The Koran does not explicitly prohibit contact with dogs, Shirazi said, but Islamic tradition showed it to be so. "We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are unclean."...

I hear (from a former inmate of the Shia loony bin) that one of the reasons the mullahs hate dogs so much--aside from the "uncleanliness" stuff--is because the religious freaks thinks guys take use their adorable pooches to the park to use as chick magnets. Because if there's one thing an Ayatollah, Grand or puny, hates more than a panting canine, it's "illicit" panting (and other hanky-panky) between men and women.