i am a muslim. it’s true that we consider shoes to be filthy, as you step with them everywhere and of course the streets are not that clean or else we would have just walked bare foot and man wouldn’t have needed shoes at all! But in your home, you can control your surroundings, its just a matter of cleanliness.

but i think its universally rejected, picture someone stepping on your face with his shoe, i’ve seen it in a lot of movies, and the meaning derived from that action is quite demeaning.

Regarding the dog issue, generally in islam, a dog is not considered the filthiest animal!! When the dog drools and a muslim touches it or touches the part around ts nose, his ablution is not accepted as these drools are filthy themselves, i think we can all agree that saliva is not very hygienic. Meaning that every time we touch a dog we have to go take our ablution again. We are allowed to have dogs only for guarding, and dogs shouldn’t enter the house. or back then they were used for hunting.

Our religion tells us to be kind to animals, they are also creatures of god. In the quran dogs were mentioned in some of the stories, people owning them, which shows what your friends do is rather because of culture rather than religion, and iran, pakistan and iraq are very close so they might have similar behaviors. I am from Egypt and a lot of muslims pick dogs for their pets, they are one of the smartest animals on earth, but they have to follow the islamic rules by keeping them outside their house, and making sure to change their clothes and take their ablution before their prayers. Again its a matter of cleanliness.

My Islamic friends consider shoes to be filthy. The rug upon which we leave our shoes inside their home (cold climate) is never touched by bare feet. They put their shoes on with their left hand. As filthy as they consider shoes to be, they consider dogs to be filthier, perhaps the filthiest creature possible.

Dogs are not fed or given homes in the countries where my friends grew up (Iran, Pakistan, Iraq). Dogs eat carrion and garbage, feed on the unburied human dead, are used to kill or dispose of the bodies of the outcast, the criminal and the irredeemable. Sometimes they are used to carry out an extra-judicial death sentence.

My friends do their best to understand our love of the dog, but basically are disgusted that not only do we allow the dog into our home, but we treat it as a good friend (and in some cases, as family). It is the part of American culture they have the most trouble understanding.

If there are insults in our culture as serious as these insults are in my friends’ culture, I cannot think of them.