re: #34 Big Steve

If this is ignorant, some one please enlighten me, but isn’t Lebanon Islamic? I realize there are other religions there but the government is dominated by those of the muslim faith. So why wouldn’t the authorities have a problem handling and using police dogs?

Lebanon is something of an anomaly among Arab countries. According to the CIA world factbook, the population of Lebanon is currently 59.7% Muslim, and 39% Christian. But just a few decades ago, the majority of Lebanese people were Christians. The demographics have shifted, due to the fact that the Muslims reproduce many times more quickly than the Christians, and many people (Christians and Muslims alike) have fled the country because it was once a civilized place, but it has now been all but annexed by the medieval thugs from Iran and Syria. Needless to say, the ones who feel most comfortable staying there are the ones who are most sympathetic to backwards Islamic extremism.

That said, none of this is really relevant to the “food sniffed by a dog” issue anyway. As far as I can tell, the use of police dogs in Muslim Arab countries is common. This is just an exercise in flexing some political muscle. Much like how Muslim taxi drivers in America refuse to carry blind passengers with seeing eye dogs, even though this practice is common in predominantly Muslim countries.