KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — When he organized a get-together for dog lovers and their canine-averse neighbors, Syed Azmi Alhabshi thought he was doing a public service.
吉隆坡，马来西亚——赛义德·阿兹米·阿拉巴什(Syed Azmi Alhabshi)组织喜欢狗的人和他们讨厌狗的邻居们进行聚会，他觉得自己是在组织一场公益活动。
But after hundreds of people showed up to the event, billed as “I Want to Touch a Dog” on Facebook, and when pictures started circulating on the Internet of Muslim women in head scarves happily hugging dogs, Mr. Syed Azmi became an unwitting protagonist in the latest chapter of Malaysia’s culture wars.
但是没想到上千人参加了那个活动，他们在Facebook上打出“我想摸狗”的宣传语，戴头巾的穆斯林女人开心拥抱小狗的照片开始在网上流传，赛义德·阿兹米无意中成了马来西亚文化斗争最新篇章的主角。

In the week since the event, Mr. Syed Azmi, a pharmacist, has received more than 3,000 messages on his phone, many of them hateful and a dozen of them threatening physical harm. The police advised him to stay at home.
赛义德·阿兹米是个药剂师。在那个活动之后的一周里，他收到了3000多条短信，其中很多是表达仇恨情绪，有十几条是威胁对他进行人身伤害。警察建议他待在家里。
Malaysia’s Muslim leaders, who cite Islamic scriptures stating that dogs are unclean, lashed out at him in the news media. “I feel the anger, and it is real,” he said in an interview.
马来西亚的穆斯林领袖们引用伊斯兰经文称，狗是不干净的，在新闻媒体上猛烈抨击他。“我非常真切地感受到他们的愤怒，”他在一次采访中说。
Over the past two weeks, Muslim leaders in Malaysia have denounced Halloween as a “planned attack” on Islam and Oktoberfest parties as a public vice “the same as mass-promoted adultery.”
在过去两周里，马来西亚的穆斯林领袖们将万圣节斥为对伊斯兰教“有计划的攻击”，称慕尼黑啤酒节是聚众淫乱，“和大肆鼓动通奸是一样的”。
The culture wars have waxed and waned in multicultural Malaysia in recent years as conservative Muslim groups have pushed back against what they describe as libidinous and ungodly Western influences in a country that has rapidly modernized and become more cosmopolitan.
近些年，在具有多元文化的马来西亚，这样的文化之争此起彼伏，因为保守的穆斯林团体开始反抗他们所谓的淫荡、邪恶的西方文化对这个国家的影响。这个国家正在快速现代化，变得更具世界性。
The dispute over touching dogs has underlined the fault lines in what has increasingly become a country polarized between members of the Malay majority, who are overwhelmingly Muslim, and ethnic Chinese, Indians and other minorities, who are typically Christian, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist.
摸狗争议突显了这个国家占主体的马来人和华裔、印度裔等少数民族之间的分裂，前者大多是穆斯林，后者大多信奉基督教、印度教、锡克教或佛教。
The dog controversy joins the decades-old disputes over the availability of pork, the imbibing of alcohol and the pressure on Muslim women to wear conservative clothing.
几十年来，在围绕供应猪肉、饮酒以及迫使穆斯林女人穿保守服装等争议之后，狗成为最新的争议对象。
Although many Muslims in other countries do not view touching dogs as forbidden, conservative Islamic groups here say the Shafie school of Islamic jurisprudence that they follow views dogs as unclean and requires the faithful to undergo a ritualistic wash if they come into contact with canines.
虽然其他国家的很多穆斯林并不把摸狗视为禁忌，但是马来西亚的保守伊斯兰团体称，他们追随的伊斯兰法系沙菲派(Shafie school)认为狗不干净，要求信徒与犬类接触后进行仪式清洗。
The Malaysian authorities described the “I Want to Touch a Dog” event as an offense to Islam. Othman Mustapha, the director general of the federal Islamic Development Department, which has the official mission of protecting the “purity of faith,” said the event was a challenge to the authority of religious leaders.
马来西亚当局把“我想摸狗”活动称为对伊斯兰教的冒犯。马来西亚联邦伊斯兰发展局(Islamic Development Department)局长奥斯曼·穆斯塔法(Othman Mustapha)说，这个活动是对宗教领袖权威的挑战。该局的官方使命是保护“信仰的纯洁性”。
The religious authorities in Malaysia have the power to crack down on practices they view as going against Islam, but Muslim law is selectively enforced and highly politicized. Many Malaysian Muslims own dogs, drink alcohol in public and have very westernized lifestyles.
马来西亚的官方宗教机构有权打击他们认为反伊斯兰教的行为，但是穆斯林法律只是被选择性执行，具有强烈的政治性。在马来西亚，很多穆斯林养狗，公开饮酒，生活方式很西化。
Criticism of the dog event has led to a backlash by a small but vocal group of moderate Muslims in the country who view the strictures of the religious authorities as oppressive.
对摸狗事件的批评导致该国虽小而有话语权的现代穆斯林群体进行强烈反击。他们认为宗教当局的苛责是一种迫害。
“All we are getting these days is how to hate an ever-growing list of people and things,” Marina Mahathir, the daughter of a former prime minister and a leading liberal voice, wrote in a newspaper column published last week. “How much energy are we to spend on hate? And how does hating anything and everything make us happy and better Muslims?”
“如今我们听到的都是如何去憎恨越来越多的人和事，”前总理的女儿、自由主义倡导者玛丽娜·马哈迪(Marina Mahathir)上周在报纸专栏上写道，“我们还要在仇恨上花多少精力？仇恨一切怎么可能让我们变成快乐的、更好的穆斯林？”
Mr. Syed Azmi, the pharmacist, said he thought he had his bases covered. Before the event, he contacted and received acknowledgment from the state religious authorities.
赛义德·阿兹米说，他本以为自己已经考虑得很周到了。在举办活动之前，他与国家宗教官方机构取得联系并获得许可。
He also invited an Islamic scholar who showed Muslims how to conduct the ritual washing after they had touched the dogs.
他还邀请一位伊斯兰学者向穆斯林们演示摸狗之后如何进行仪式清洗。
“I expected it to be in the news, but not to the point where people would get so angry,” said Mr. Syed Azmi, who is Muslim.
“我当时是期望这个活动能上新闻，但我没想到人们会如此愤怒，”赛义德·阿兹米说。他也是一位穆斯林。