Making a pig's ear of defending democracy
By Mark Steyn
(Filed: 04/10/2005)

A year and a half ago, I mentioned in this space the Florentine 
Boar, a famous piece of porcine statuary in Derby that the council 
had decided not to have repaired on the grounds that it would offend
Muslims. Having just seen Looney Tunes: Back in Action, in which 
Porky Pig mentions en passant that Warner Bros has advised him to 
lose the stammer, I wondered if for the British release it might 
be easier just to lose the pig.

Alas, the United Kingdom's descent into dhimmitude is beyond parody.
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (Tory-controlled) has now
announced that, following a complaint by a Muslim employee, all work
pictures and knick-knacks of novelty pigs and "pig-related items" will
be banned. Among the verboten items is one employee's box of tissues,
because it features a representation of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.
And, as we know, Muslims regard pigs as "unclean", even an
anthropomorphised cartoon pig wearing a scarf and a bright, 
colourful singlet.

Cllr Mahbubur Rahman is in favour of the blanket pig crackdown. "It 
is a good thing, it is a tolerance and acceptance of their beliefs 
and understanding," he said. That's all, folks, as Porky Pig used to
stammer at the end of Looney Tunes. Just a little helpful proscription
in the interests of tolerance and acceptance.

And where's the harm in that? As Pastor Niemoller said, first they
came for Piglet and I did not speak out because I was not a Disney
character and, if I was, I'm more of an Eeyore.

[... ...]

When every act that a culture makes communicates weakness and loss 
of self-belief, eventually you'll be taken at your word. In the long
term, these trivial concessions are more significant victories than
blowing up infidels on the Tube or in Bali beach restaurants. An act
of murder demands at least the pretence of moral seriousness, even
from the dopiest appeasers. But small acts of cultural vandalism
corrode the fabric of freedom all but unseen.

Is it really a victory for "tolerance" to say that a council worker
cannot have a Piglet coffee mug on her desk? And isn't an ability to
turn a blind eye to animated piglets the very least the West is
entitled to expect from its Muslim citizens? If Islam cannot "co-
exist" even with Pooh or the abstract swirl on a Burger King ice-
cream, how likely is it that it can co-exist with the more basic
principles of a pluralist society? As A A Milne almost said: "They're
changing guard at Buckingham Palace/ Her Majesty's Law is replaced by
Allah's."

By the way, isn't it grossly offensive to British Wahhabis to have a
head of state who is female and uncovered?

[... ...]

Full article at UK "Telegraph"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/
2005/10/04/do0402.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/10/04/ixportal.html


Cheers, Steve...

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