First guide dog allowed into British mosque

Cathy Reay

A blind Muslim student has become the first person allowed to take his guide dog into a British mosque.

Mahomed-Abraar Khatri, an 18-year-old college student from Leicester, has been granted a fatwa by the Muslim Law (Shariah) Council UK, enabling him to enter his local mosque accompanied by his guide dog, Vargo. 

Dogs are not usually allowed in mosques because Muslims believe their purpose is to hunt and guard and they are seen as “unclean”. But after Mr Khatri asked for the ban to be lifted at the mosque, it was softened to exclude guide dogs, regarded as “working” animals.

Mohammad Shahid Raza, director of the Imams and Mosques Council UK and secretary of the Muslim Law (Shariah) Council UK, issued the fatwa.

He said: “I am pleased to know that Bilal Jamia Mosque is providing a unique facility to our blind Muslim brothers to take their guide dogs with them while visiting the mosque to join the prayers.

“Such a facility will highlight the Islamic attitude of helping disabled people and enhance the services we provide to the Muslim community.”

A spokeswoman for The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said: “Through working closely with the Muslim Council of Britain we have helped open up the possibility of the life-changing freedom and independence that a guide dog can provide to thousands of blind and partially-sighted Muslims around the world.”

Pervez Hussein, a blind Muslim guide dog-owner from Herefordshire, told Disability Now: “There is nothing in the Muslim religion that says you can’t have a guide dog.

“There are so few Muslim guide dog-owners that I don’t feel this will shift barriers; though if ever this happens again, there is this great example to fall back on.”

Dogs are still banned from mosque prayer-rooms because they are thought to be too unclean.