Sarfraz concludes in his article that the main reason he is afraid of dogs its because he is a Muslim. However, for me it’s more because of this:
“When I was at school in the 80s, I associated dogs with skinheads; round where we lived, the racists delighted in unleashing their alsatians whenever they saw brown-skinned boys like me. Dogs may have been man's best friend, but they were an Asian's worst enemy.”When I was young we were constantly threatened by the racists with their dogs. They would get their dogs to run after us, and my cousins have been bit too. So I don’t think our fear is baseless, it is based on the terror that racists unleashed towards us.
Having said that, I am trying very hard to lose my fear of dogs. I walk pass them now, avoid looking at them but I don’t run in the opposite direction like I used to. However, if it’s not leashed, I admit I do panic, and at times I cross the road. This fear is a real loss for me, as I live right next to a beautiful park, but in the summer I can’t spend as much time as I had hoped to.
My lovely colleague has a dog which she is very attached to and loves talking about. I haven’t admitted to her yet that I am afraid of dogs, but living in this country, I really need to lose this fear and I hope one day I could stroke a dog without fear.
I just don’t know how to get there. Any ideas?
Btw I’m just as scared of any other animal: cats, hampsters, mice etc.
Hasidic Jews never keep dogs as pets too. Interesting.
2 comments:
We have the same type of people with dogs in Scotland for numerous reason: being caught dissing their cousin, being on 'their' street, wearing the wrong clothes. They'll use any excuse, racism being another one of them. I'm not scared of dogs however I am terrified of the type of dogs like rottweilers, pitbulls and dobermen these guys walk about with.
I don't know the difference to be honest between the types of dogs. Having said that, some do look 10z scarier than others!
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