Tyler Hurd is a St. Cloud State University student plagued by seizures following a childhood accident, and has a service dog who is trained to sit on him when a seizure strikes, to prevent him from hurting himself.

A Muslim student at the school threatened to kill the dog.

Now the Hamas-linked, Saudi-funded radical Islamic front group calling itself the Council on American Islamic Relations is getting out in front of the press to support Tyler Hurd: Islamic group supports student teacher.

The only reason they are on the right side of this issue is because they need to rehabilitate their image, after being listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial. Expect to see more empty gestures like this from CAIR.

And of course, in this article at the St. Cloud Times, you won’t find any of this context, as once again CAIR is simply (and dishonestly) described as “the nation’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.”

A Muslim civil rights group on Wednesday said it supports a St. Cloud State University student’s right to use a service dog while teaching at a high school with a growing Muslim population.

The statement comes after 23-year-old Tyler Hurd of Mahtomedi left a teacher-training assignment before its completion at Technical High School in April.

Hurd said he left because he was concerned for the safety of his service dog.

He said he was told a student at the high school threatened to kill the dog, a black Lab named Emmitt.

The student is Muslim. The Minnesota Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement that the need to accommodate people using service dogs far outweighs the discomfort an individual Muslim feels about coming in contact with a dog. CAIR is the nation’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.

“We were just shocked to see that. He (Hurd) was treated with disrespect,” Lori Saroya said in an interview.

She lives in Minneapolis and is chairwoman of the Minnesota chapter.

Muslims believe the saliva of dogs invalidates the ritual washing before prayer. It has become a cultural norm for individuals not to have dogs in their houses, according to Minnesota CAIR.

UPDATE at 5/15/08 10:24:07 am:

Here’s how CAIR describes the Islamic prohibition against dogs, and the SC Times accepts it at face value:

Muslims believe the saliva of dogs invalidates the ritual washing before prayer. It has become a cultural norm for individuals not to have dogs in their houses, according to Minnesota CAIR.

This description is ludicrously incomplete, to the point of being a deliberate deception. The hadith says that Muslims should not only avoid touching dogs—they should kill them.

(Hat tip: SpringheelJack.)