Outlawing the Pig
By Janet Levy
FrontPageMagazine.com | 5/1/2008
The practice of political correctness may soon be tallying another casualty: the pig. Increasingly, as America and the rest of the Western world continue accommodating Muslim religious demands, pork food products are being singled out for removal from dining tables and pig-related trinkets banished from the desks of office workers.
If this continues, good ol’ American food, such as barbeque replete with hot dogs and ribs and the typical American breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausage, might be seen as the equivalent of political poison. Could outright censorship of pig depictions in drawings, pig references in literary works and pig portrayals in movies be far behind? Could the well-known, cartoon figure Porky Pig become a cultural embarrassment of our unenlightened past as we fear to utter the “P” word?
Though the notion may seem more appropriate for a comedy routine, an increasing number of pig-related incidents, accommodations and Muslim demands in recent years points to an uncertain future for our porcine friend and its place in our economy, culture and our culinary traditions.
In October of 2005, the United Kingdom, clearly further along on the road to dhimmitude due to its proportionally large and more radical Muslim population, banned piggybanks as promotional gifts from its banks. At about the same time, government social welfare offices called for the removal of all pig paraphernalia, including pig calendars, toys and accessories from employee desks. These new regulations were ostensibly implemented so as not to offend Muslim patrons.
Meanwhile, in the United States in 2007, several school districts removed pork products from their cafeteria offerings. Dearborn, Mich., schools banned pork completely to avoid the possibility that Muslims students might unknowingly eat it. The district later added special halal foods to its menu to cater to the demands of its Muslim population. An elementary school in San Diego that offers Arabic, single-gender classes and Muslim-only organized prayer, no longer offers pork to any of its students. And in Oak Lawn, Ill., where the administration is debating elimination of Christmas holiday celebrations, pork has already been banished from the school lunchroom.
Orthodox Jews, who follow kosher laws that prohibit the consumption of pork, have never demanded such special considerations for their chosen dietary habits nor have Jews feared accidental pork ingestion. They privately moderate their consumption according to their religious observances and often consume food prepared at home according to prescribed regulations.
Contrast this to how Muslims and their dietary habits are treated. In April 2007, a 13-year-old middle school prankster was suspended and his behavior labeled a hate crime for placing a bag with a ham steak on the lunch table of a group of Muslim students. That same month, Muslims started a Facebook group, “Fight Against Pork in Frito-Lay Products.” The more than 1,800 participants sought to pressure the company to remove pork enzymes from its cheese seasonings.
Last year, Somali Muslim employees at a St. Louis Park, Minn. Target store refused to handle pork products, citing religious reasons. Target made special allowances for Muslim employees, who now scrutinize customer purchases and can call for assistance when a pork product appears at their check stand. Presumably, the Muslim employees knew they would be encountering bacon and pepperoni pizza when they signed on for their jobs and have no problem collecting a salary paid out of profits from pork sales.
In 2007, the Year of the Pig, an imam in Taipei complained after receiving a greeting card from Taiwan’s foreign minister depicting celebrating pigs. When “Year of the Pig” postal stamps were issued, the Taiwanese government cautioned citizens about using them on letters and parcels to Muslim friends or to Muslim countries. That year, China banned pig images and the mention of pigs in television advertisement to avoid offending the country’s Muslims.
This year, the popular story, The Three Little Pigs, was banned in a primary school in the United Kingdom as the school’s administration thought references to pigs might offend Muslim pupils. Another school removed all books containing stories about pigs, including the talking pig ‘Babe’ from classrooms following complaints from Muslim parents. In 2007, a UK church school production of The Three Little Pigs was renamed The Three Little Puppies to maintain multi-cultural sensitivities. Ironically, the pig is mentioned often in the Koran as a derogatory reference to Jews.
In further accommodation to Muslims, Fortis Bank in the Netherlands and Belgium dropped its pig mascot. Knorbert the pig was eliminated after seven years with a statement from a bank spokesperson that “Knorbert does not meet the requirements that the multicultural society imposes on us.”
A recent BBC report described how pork butchers are gradually being put out of business as Turkey adopts a more fundamentalist Muslim character. Pork slaughterhouses are being closed in record numbers to accommodate shariah law countrywide.
In 2004, a Muslim-owned investment company, Arcapita (formerly Capital Crescent Investments) acquired the 1,200-unit Church’s Chicken chain. In 2005, Arcapita, with a net income of $70.5 million and assets worth $1.2 billion (2004), enjoined a franchisee from selling pork products. In correspondence with the franchisee, the corporate owners cited violation of shariah law as the reason for prohibiting the sale of bacon, ham and sausages. The restaurant owners were thereby forced to surrender to corporate demands and operate under shariah law.
Where will this end? Will “Animal Farm” be banned at our high schools and university campuses? Will the words “pork barrel spending” and “porker” be eliminated from the vernacular? Will Piggly Wiggly supermarkets be forced to change its name and re-brand its products? This could all be quite amusing if the implications weren’t so grave.
The pig is an icon of American culture, a culinary tradition and an important component of our economy. While high grain prices and competition from Chinese imports are recognized as the two greatest threats to the industry, hog producers could be overlooking a larger threat to their livelihood looming on the horizon.
Pork production is a vital part of the U.S. economy, producing more than 22 billion pounds of meat annually, contributing almost $40 billion to the GNP and employing more than 500,000 workers in pork-industry related jobs. In addition, important pork co-products include heart valves, skin grafts for burn victims, gelatin, plywood, glue, cosmetics and plastics. At 28% of total world production, the U.S. is the second largest pork producer after China, which produces close to 50% of the world total. Pork ranks third in U.S. meat production behind beef and chicken and average yearly per capita consumption is about 50 pounds.
If the momentum to alter America’s dining habits and cultural traditions to suit Muslim religious habits continues, American liberty, freedom and culture could actually be threatened. Laughable though it may seem on the surface, Arab petrodollar profits have the heft to use an economic, backdoor approach to implement shariah law in the United States against the will of the public. As Arab Muslims continue to heavily invest in our economy, they will continue to force submission to shariah law and undermine our democracy, individual rights and religious freedom. We must be vigilant and aware of this threat and act against it vigorously and immediately.
Janet Levy is the founder of ESG Consulting, an organization that offers project management, fundraising, promotion, event organizing and planning services for conservative political causes and issues related to terrorism and national security.
Pigs are apparently fairly intelligent, and capable of relating to people as pets. I am not overly in favor of killing them.
Come to think of it, pet pigs are more desirable neighbors than Islamic supremacists…
Comment by Bill Levinson — April 30, 2008 @ 10:58 pm
These “Lands of the Covenant” (Artzot Habrit), this biblical inheritance of Menashe ben Yosef, should ban the sale of pork - but not harmless “pig paraphernalia” - and I say this as a Christian who follows our Leader who upheld the Biblical dietary laws, contrary to today’s traditional misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
Unclean Christianity vs. Peter’s Vision
Comment by David BenAriel — May 1, 2008 @ 12:54 am
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Islam copied from Judaism much of their beliefs but extended the ritual ban farther than Judaism like in gelatins and enzymes derived from pigs and of course all alcohol including wine. Thats ok with me ea to their own. Most Jews today do not observe kashrut (Jewish dietary laws). More than likely, if you ask someone who doesn’t keep kosher why the Torah has dietary laws, he’ll tell you that the reason is because Moses didn’t have USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) supervision to ensure that pigs healthy and don’t have trichinosis. The real reason we eat kosher is that God commanded us to do so in the Torah, and the Jewish people are bound to God in a covenant to keep the commandments of that Torah.
It is my belief that Judaism can be summed up in two rules: love God and do not harm your neighbors; the rest is interpretation. The Torah envisages a practically pure society. Jews can have extramarital sex, but not to the extent of committing adultery; sort of drinking rather than becoming drunk. Jews do not murder people, pigs, monkeys, horses, or other animals – but because they have to eat meat, are allowed to kill cows, sheep, and goats. God doesn’t need offerings or prayers, but the inherently superstitious people need to get in touch with the divine; Judaism severely limited permissible worship to only the Temple.
We Jews could learn a lot from devout Muslims who take their copied Jewish rituals like many Christians much more seriously and devotedly than most Jews today.
Comment by yamit82 — May 1, 2008 @ 3:48 am
Muslims seem to be proving my theory that violence or fear of violence by a large enough group of people can render almost any western society impotent. Fear is the guiding force behind Western European capitulation, Israeli capitulation and American capitulation. To justify these societies moral and ethical bankruptcies a new
quasi religion or ideology has taken hold in these western societies called relativism and pacifism. There seems to be little will in these western societies to opt for self defense of their core culture and societal norms when they face prospect of violence unleashed by their Muslim minorities.I do however think that by cracking down and not giving in to Muslims in Western countries could disturb the business and energy interests linked to the Arab World. Fear is a potent all inclusive weapon.
Comment by yamit82 — May 1, 2008 @ 4:47 am
Kosher Slaughter
1. Christian (and secular) Jew-haters are always looking for ways to demean Jews. One of their frequent tools is to threaten to ban kosher slaughter on the ground that it causes “inhumane cruelty” to animals. As their argument, they say that the Christian slaughterhouse methods of shooting a re-usable bolt into the heads of cows, or electrocuting chickens and then mechanically slicing off their heads, is “clearly humane” while the Jewish method (surprise) is “clearly inhumane”.
It’s a matter of divine humor that when they were about to put the ban into effect, their Muslim allies said, “Hey wait a minute. Muslim slaughter is exactly the same as kosher slaughter, so if you ban kosher slaughter you are also banning Muslim slaughter.” The moment the goyim heard they might be in danger of offending their Muslim “friends”, the threatened ban on kosher slaughter simply disappeared.
2. Muslim slaughter does differ from kosher slaughter in an interesting way. When the Romans destroyed our Holy Temple, the priesthood lost its religious authority, and the rabbis took over. Muhammad learned rabbinic Judaism from Arabia’s Jews (many of whom were descendants of priests). So he ignored the idea of a priestly caste, and declared that all muslims are essentially priests.
So, where Judaism declares that only specially trained and rabbinically sanctioned Jewish men can perform kosher slaughter, every muslim may perform his own muslim slaughter. That leads to surreal scenes around the world on the muslim holiday “the feast of the sacrifice” where they re-enact Abraham sacrificing a ram in place of Isaac (only they say it was Ishmael and not Isaac, and that it happened near Mecca in Arabia, and for sure not Jerusalem, and that 100 year old Abraham travelled 500 miles through the desert to do it). Anyway, the Muslim men walk around in the streets trying to slice animals’ throats, leading to screaming, bleeding cows and camels with incompletely sliced throats running around the streets while frantic muslim mem chase after them to finish them off.
In America and Europe, where these scenes would not be tolerated, the Muslims quietly rent space from sympathetic farmers, and perform their mass slaughters out in the fields. Needless to say, hypocritical PETA and the liberal media keep absolutely silent about this, and pretend it is not happening.
Comment by Samuel Fistel — May 1, 2008 @ 7:45 am
This is no different than pharmacies accommodating pharmacists who refuse to handle birth control products.
Comment by Michael Ejercito — May 1, 2008 @ 11:06 am
The muslims are testing us to see how far they push us. This is outrageous. There is no reason whatsoever that pork products should be banned from school cafetarias, fast food chains, work places and so on. All muslims have to do is simply avoid eating these products. However that is not enough for islamosupremicists, they insist upon forcefully imposing islamic laws on the rest of us and unfortunately instead of being laughed off, feckless heads of companies schools boards etc. acquiece without a fight. Students and adults at their workplaces where pork is banned should all bring huge ham sandwiches for lunch. Muslims own personal choice to observe their religious dietary laws should not preclude others from having the choice to eat pork products.
Comment by Laura — May 1, 2008 @ 3:44 pm
How about, “Bring your dog to work day?” Islamic supremacists also regard dogs as unclean animals. I would rather have a dog in my house than an Islamic supremacist, which should tell you what I think of the relative merits of dogs and Islamic supremacists. Come to think of it, can anyone figure out how to write the Shahada (the same verse that appears on Al Qaida and Hezbollah flags) on plastic bags? I’m thinking of bags suitable for cleaning up after walking a dog.
Comment by Bill Levinson — May 1, 2008 @ 5:59 pm
Institutions and employers know that if they do not try to accomodate aggressive Muslim demands, they could be slapped with a complaint to the Human Rights Commission or a law suit in the states.
Business or practical decisions are thus made time and again to avoid any adverse notariety or the cost of defending a complaint or a law suit.
Muslims who gain advantages from being aggressively assertive, seem to only feel more empowered to demand more as opposed to being grateful for one accommodation or another and be satisfied with what they got.
Activist Muslims who are involved in pushing for one accomodation on top of another are however pushing their luck. At some point institutions and business are going to say to hell with you and when that day comes, business and institutions will find just how worthwhile it is to stand their ground and how unworthy their appeasement efforts that brought them nothing but more demands for more appeasement.
There is a day coming when Muslim activists are going to find that institutions and businesses can and will push back harder then they push them.
I hope that day comes sooner rather then later. What has happened and is happening in the UK and the EU serves as a lesson hard learned that there can be no truck and trade with activist Muslims who suffer from a surfeit of feelings of entitlement.
Comment by Bill Narvey — May 1, 2008 @ 7:21 pm
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