Wednesday, October 05, 2005
COLOURS LOWERED
Poor pigless England ...
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.
... is soon to be flagless, if certain intolerant folk get their way:
British prison officers who wore a St. George’s Cross tie-pin have been ticked off by the jails watchdog over concerns about the symbol’s racist connotations.
The pins showing the English flag—which has often raised hackles due to its connection with the Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries—could be “misconstrued,” Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said ...
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, said Tuesday the red cross was an insensitive reminder of the Crusades.
“A lot of Muslims and Arabs view the Crusades as a bloody episode in our history,” he told CNN. “They see those campaigns as Christendom launching a brutal holy war against Islam.”
Doyle added that it was now time for England to find a new flag and a patron saint who is “not associated with our bloody past and one we can all identify with.”
A new flag, eh ... I guess a St George’s Cross made from bacon strips is out of the question?
UPDATE. Perry de Havilland: “I wonder how this organisation would react to calls for Muslims to abandon the crescent moon, the green flag and all other overly Muslim symbols as being offensive to some English people who may associate them with slavery?” (via Tom Pechinski)