I Am So Easily Offended.

Stories are abounding out of Britain that the culture has decided to acquiesce to radical Muslim demands and accept dhimmi status. Witness the recent ban on pigs, both in offices and schools. Not actual pigs, mind you, but pictures of pigs and piggy toys. But look at the stories themselves. First, the office pigs:

NOVELTY pig calendars and toys have been banned from a council office — in case they offend Muslim staff...

Bosses acted after a Muslim complained about pig-shaped stress relievers delivered to the council in the run-up to the Islamic festival of Ramadan.

Translation: One guy got a bee in his bonnet and the whole damn place overreacted.

Or try this school story:

Mrs Harris said in a statement: "Recently I have been aware of an occasion where young Muslim children in class were read stories about pigs.

"We try to be sensitive to the fact that for Muslims talk of pigs is offensive."

Second translation: No one actually complained, we're just so freakin' politically correct that we are now going to anticipate every possible objection, no matter how ridiculous it may seem.

And it is ridiculous. On the same page as the school story, there is a video explaining that Muslims (except for that one guy who can't tell the difference between latex and pork rind) are prohibited from eating pigs, but so such ban on seeing them or reading about them exists. Again, no one had complained. Mrs. Harris just showed her slip by assuming that all her Muslim students were as small minded as she is.

Or singing!

Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon.

Then again, there was a story about Hindus and Muslims in India and Pakistan burning Valentine's Day Cards. But wait! Was the entire population rioting? Nooooo, just a handful of nuts. But we have pictures of some guy who hasn't been laid in a while complaining about the plethora of pink hearts.

Today, we see that there is someone in England who now sees the English flag as too offensive to survive:

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.

"Muslim or Arab prisoners could take umbrage if staff wore a red cross badge. It's also got associations with the far-right. Prison officers should be seen to be neutral."

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."

I have no idea if Mr. Doyle is Muslim, but I bet not because of the way he frames his argument. "Could take umbrage" is the tip-off. Again, it looks as if Mr. Doyle is engaging in preemptive outrage.

After September 11, a Mutual Fund company sent everyone in our office a small US flag pin. One night I was riding home on the bus, talking to my neighbor, a high-techie from Turkey (hey, that's funny). A woman--a lily white, red haired woman--approached us and told me that my flag pin was offensive. I asked her to whom would it be offensive. Her answer: "Well I suppose it's your business, but if I was a Muslim, I would be offended." I was intrigued.

"Why?" I asked.

Blank stare. Shrug. So I turned to my neighbor and asked, "Does my flag pin offend you?"

He turned his lapel over to reveal his own pin. It was a combination of the Turkish and American flags. "Not unless mine offends you," he answered.

In so many cases, westerners jump at the chance to make nice when there is no offense taken. Then, to whip up frenzy, the media get ahold of some stupid story and plaster it around until every last Muslim is suspect as a secret spy for the ummah.

By now, everybody knows that the world must fight against Islamism. But for Pete's sake, people, can we get a grip? Worrying about piggies is just a slick way of complaining about the coarse linens aboard the Titanic. Pay Attention!

This all serves to numb us to whatever is actually going on. We get outraged! And offended! At the shear stupidity! But whose stupidity offends? Frankly, I don't get offended much. And I find that most people who talk of being offended rarely have a good reason outside of wanting to stir up some controversy. So what do we do? Give 'em some media coverage.

There are billions of people in this world getting through each day with various levels of success. There are perhaps several millions who are more easily offended than the rest and wish to complain for whatever reason. These two groups of people are not our problem.

It's the maybe several hundreds of thousands or a few millions who are willing to blow things and buildings and people up because of any number of offenses. These are the people who actually want to spread their radical ideology. Could we please focus on this group and stop whining about piggies and crosses and crescents? Speaking of crescents, look where you can find one.

And to those who wish never to be offended again: Just get over yourselves already. When everything is offensive, nothing is.

Comments

[Vavoom]

The muppets aren't broadcast in Saudi Arabia because of Miss Piggy. Yes, that's true. I grew up as a Muslim in this country. Sure, I heard all about which little piggy went to market, the three little pigs and football (pigskin). None of that changed my status as a Muslim. I don't really understand why people feel compelled to extricate anything and everything they find uncomfortable or, God forbid, sinful. It's not like Islamic schoolchildren are being forced to eat pork or anything. They're seeing images of pigs... that's nothing. Hell, nobody is tempted to eat bear meat after reading all about Goldilocks.

Idle hands are the devil's workshop. Having nothing else to do, people will complain, whine and gripe about anything. In this case, the Islamic faith and credibility is undermined. Want to show the world how strong our faith is? Let Muslims be exposed to whatever they want. The greatest of religious figures are not pious because they were never tempted, rather they were tempted but did not succumb to it.

[Daniel]

You are absolutely right about temptation and piety. I always thought that one's faith was more r less window dressing if it could not stand up to scrutiny. The most faithful people I know do not have a problem with questions or challenges; indeed, they welcome them.

But my point in this post is that, in these instances, the offenses were either imagined or imposed where there was no such offense taken. So we are starting to see non-Muslims coming up with new, improved ways to separate Muslims from the Western societies they live in.

Saudi Arabia is almost a caricature, isn't it? We want to believe that this is he way of all Muslims, because the box is more comfortable.