Exceptional

One of the more frustrating aspects of living in Saudi Arabia is dealing with the extraordinary cultural exceptionalism of the locals. All cultures view themselves as unique from their neighbors; that is a fundamental aspect of culture. It’s the “we think we are better/behave better/think better than everyone else” part that causes problems.

Allow me to tell you a short story to illustrate the point.

I had Azza in the vet to get one of her vaccinations and there was a local couple in there at the same time. He was in western clothes, she was wearing an abaya and head scarf but didn’t cover her face.

A bit of an aside before I continue the story. You have to be very careful about assuming that a local male wearing western clothes is westernized. Although many of those who work at Aramco were educated OOK and exposed to modern concepts in science and technology and medicine and biology and so on, a surprisingly small number of those ideas remain with them upon their return. So on a daily basis you encounter such superstitious nonsense as “you should never eat an even number of dates; you can only digest them if you eat an odd number." 

So this man asked me if Azza was a saluki. I told him she was a mix. The woman then asked if she could pet Azza. I was surprised because most Arabs and Asians will not have a thing to do with dogs, will cross to the other side of the road to avoid passing us on the sidewalk, that sort of thing. I told her, sure, she could pet Azza. She reached down her hand to touch Azza’s head, and Azza promptly peed a bit on the floor and began licking the woman’s hand, both submissive/appeasement behaviors that drive me utterly mad (because she does them constantly even though appeasement isn't required). I have almost trained her to stop licking Harry, Mimi, me, and my friends and their dogs, but strangers are another matter. Then the guy told me that salukis are the “only dogs that muslims are allowed to own.” I was working out how to tell the woman that there was now some dog pee on the floor that she might want to avoid and didn’t quite hear him. I looked up and said “Allowed?” He said, yes, allowed by religion. I said, “Oh?” And then he came out with this conversation stopper: “Yes, because salukis have different chemicals in their mouths than other dogs and are therefore clean.”

Where do you go with that? Tell them that they are ignorant of basic biology? That such nonsense is not mentioned in any official text used by Islam (the Prophet Mohammed’s comments about dogs are in a couple of hadiths, and no hadith mentions salukis or their mouths)? Try to explain that the flora and fauna in salukis’ mouths are no different than any other dog's mouth? That just that morning Azza ate bird poop and worms off the sidewalk and licked her butt, and how exactly does that make her mouth clean?

I simply turned away to move Azza to another corner of the room. I’m going to hell anyway so I never mentioned that his wife’s abaya was dragging through dog pee.