Oxford University Press Bans the Mention of Pigs and Sausages so as not to Offend Muslims

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Eat Me, Muhammad!

Well, sort of.

No, Oxford University Press hasn't excised these words from their dictionary or prohibited academic treatises on pig farming.

Yet.

What they did do (though they didn't announce it publicly) was to send a memo to an author writing a children's book to avoid mention of the terms, "pig" and "sausages". This fact was exposed, on, of all places, a BBC Radio program devoted to the topic of free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Their stated reason was to take account of the sensitivities of other peoples in today's multi-cultural world market, and so on and so forth, etc., etc., especially the sensitivities of Jews and Muslims.

Implying it's not about mere Muslim sensitivities is of course, as it were, utter bull.

And given the fact that Jews are now the chief beneficiaries of Muslim violence and hate, anyone who from now on groups, Jews and Muslims together in a syrupy anti-racism obfuscation, should be given 1,000 lashes from a Riyadh special prosecutor. With a wet-noodle, of course--forgive the Prophet for that mercy.

Of course, Jews have never had a problem with mentioning pork or pigs. According to a Jewish spokesman, quoted inthe Daily Mail, "Jewish law prohibits eating pork, not the mention of the word or the animal from which it derives."

Indeed, the Oxford University Press memo was even condemned by a Muslim Labor MP who called it (according to the same Daily Mail article), "absolute utter nonsense. And when people go too far, that brings the whole discussion into disrepute."

A "clarification" by an OUP spokesperson in the Guardian a few days later merely made things worse: “To address children’s learning needs, it is important that they also reflect the cultural context in which children are learning…for example, if animals are depicted shown in a background illustration, we would think carefully about which animals to choose. In doing so we are able to ensure children remain focused purely on their learning, rather than cultural characteristics.”

So, it’s really about the children and focused on learning.

Sure it is.

In a pig’s eye.

Endnote: Here at Mahound's Paradise, we have no problem with funky religious eating rules--Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Catholic or anything else. As Traditionalist Catholics we go vegetarian for Lent (except for Sundays). Rather it's the totalitarian imposition of the theme on other people that we object to. The Porky Pig cartoon is meant to offend those who go along with that. And we deeply hope it does offend those people.