Mark Steyn:
Here's another news item out of Britain this week: A new version of The Three Little Pigs was turned down for some "excellence in education" award on the grounds that "the use of pigs raises cultural issues" and, as a result, the judges "had concerns for the Asian community" — ie, Muslims. Non-Muslim Asians — Hindus and Buddhists — have no "concerns" about anthropomorphized pigs.
This is now a recurring theme in British life. A while back, it was a local government council telling workers not to have knick-knacks on their desks representing Winnie-the-Pooh's porcine sidekick, Piglet. As Martin Niemöller famously 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. So then they came for the Three Little Pigs, and Babe, and by the time I realized my country had turned into a 24/7 Looney Tunes it was too late, because there was no Porky Pig to stammer "Th-th-th-that's all, folks!" and bring the nightmare to an end.
Just for the record, it's true that Muslims, like Jews, are not partial to bacon and sausages. But the Koran has nothing to say about cartoon pigs. Likewise, it is silent on the matter of whether one can name a teddy bear after Mohammed. What all these stories have in common is the excessive deference to Islam. If the Three Little Pigs are verboten when Muslims do not yet comprise ten per cent of the British population, what else will be on the blacklist by the time they're, say, 20 per cent?
And some related thoughts from Roger Kimball.
I am at the point where I think that we should say that no more mosques will be built in this country with Saudi money until there are churches and synagagues in Riyadh.
Charles Martel rolls in his grave.
I think you have to cut Britain some slack on this. They've allowed themselves to be colonized by Paki's, most of whom don't see the problem with their co religionists strapping on a bomb and taking out some civilians in support of their culture. Clearly the mainstream is falling back and hoping for the mass media to undermine the colonists in the same way it undermined the Christians, the nationalists and the classical liberals. Rather like how the Chinese reacted to the arrival of the British during the opium wars.
They've allowed the Muslims to do to them what they fought the Nazis to prevent.
A foreign culture supplanting the British culture.
To bad, so sad.
I disagree with the original post. No more mosques should be built in Britain with anyone's money, ever. In fact, the existing ones should be seized and turned into something useful. And we should stop making any concessions whatsoever to Islam. The list is already far too long - required prayer breaks and dedicated rooms in workplaces, faith schools, the legality of halal meat, allowing Moslems to decide what goods (wrapped thoroughly, don't forget) they feel like handling at supermarket checkouts, allowing Moslem policemen to decide which bit of their sworn duty they feel like doing...
"the Koran has nothing to say about cartoon pigs. Likewise, it is silent on the matter of whether one can name a teddy bear after Mohammed."
What if we name a cartoon pig after Mohammed?