Reprinted from Muhammad Speaks, October 13, 1972
By Jamillah Muhammad
My Black brothers and sisters, wake up from this ignorance. When we become dog worshipers it shows that we suffer from a psychological or emotional illness and are really covering feelings of guilt and self doubt.
It indicates that there is something lacking in your dealing and communication with people and you feel that this 'show' of kindness toward an animal will compensate for these short comings.
When you find yourself relying on the companionship of dumb animals, it is because your company is disagreeable to beings of higher intelligence?
Is it because a dog cannot hear with an understanding ear your ignorance and negative remarks, nor can it feel the sting of your superior attitudes and false pride, and cannot stand in judgment of you?
You feel secure and safe before the spiritually unseeing eyes of an animal and that's when you feel that dog is Man's best friend. In most cases we can ask, Why shouldn't they be?
Some of the same people who turn up their noses and are too proud to speak to human beings, who offer weak and diluted excuses for their arrogance and mistreatment of people, lovingly pet and cuddle animals.
Some of the same people whose budget minimizes food for themselves and their children religiously feed their dogs on time every day and express resentment for serving their own families.
Some of the same people who take pride in the training of their pets let their children grow up and go out into society like wild animals for the lack of that home training so lavishly bestowed upon a dog.
Yes, many of the Dog Worshippers have come to treat people like dogs and dogs like people.
You, Dog Worshipers...Why don't you come to grips with reality? You have NO excuse for zoo keeping in your homes. To prove how backwards you've become, some of you claim to keep these dogs for protection against harm from enemies and trespassers. It seems you take security in the protection of a d-o-g above the protection of G-o-d, the Supreme BEING, Whose Proper Name is Allah.
And while you think this dog is protecting you, who then, is going to protect you from the dog?
Besides being known as disease carriers, infested with germs from the saliva in their mouths to the hair of their backs, we must understand that if he will turn on one that you have determined to be an enemy, one day he may turn on you.
In this day and time we cannot predict what human beings, whose minds are of superior intelligence, will and will not do. Therefore, it would be foolish for us to think we can predict the behavior of dogs.
With all of the danger that surrounds and threatens us, we willfully bring this source of potential danger into our homes.
The dog is related in ancestry to the wolf which is a wild, fierce, flesh-eating animal, and he will instinctively eat your flesh. Of course Black people should be more aware of that fact than anyone.
As we trace back to the origin of this phrase, "Dog is Man's best friend." we find that it originally referred to the Cave man. The two were equal in their beastial nature and they got along like brothers. The trained dog was his faithful companion and was used for hunting purposes and as a warner and protector against other animals.
The cave man's children used their dogs in a very similar manner through the sordid history of the Black man in America.
TO BE CONTINUED