Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Oh my stupidly PC.

The tale of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf has delighted children for generations. Yet the head of a Yorkshire school has banned the story in classes from fears it will offend Muslims. Barbara Harris, headteacher of Park Road Junior Infant and Nursery School, Batley, removed all books containing stories about pigs, including the fairy tale and the talking pig Babe, from the classrooms of children aged under seven in case they upset Muslim pupils and their families. She claimed it had been school policy for seven years to avoid telling the stories to young Muslim children, following complaints from Muslim parents, and that the books had been removed after a teacher had accidentally breached the policy.

But wait. It gets better. Who is upset by the move?

Last night Yorkshire Muslims condemned the move as "nonsense", as their holy book, the Koran, permits followers of Islam to talk or read about pigs as long as they do not eat their meat. Bradford magistrate Bary Malik, an Ahmadiyya Muslim, said: "Every day Muslims recite passages from the Koran.

"As the Koran mentions pig, Muslims must say that word. All the Koran says you should not do is eat pork, but there is no harm in using the word or reading it.

"This school has gone too far – what will they do next, ban the word cow because Hindus believe the cow is sacred?

"In this world there are many extremists who do not like Jews or Muslims – does that mean that we should ban the words Jews or Muslim out of respect for their views?

"Really it shows a lack of religious understanding. It's nonsense."

What a freaking moron this woman is. Even after Muslim leaders in the community said that this is a completely foolish move, she still defends it.

"I very much regret that anyone should find this controversial as all we are doing is trying hard and reasonably successfully to ensure all of our children are awarded the respect that all human beings deserve."

Here is another article about this story.

Parents of children at Park Road Junior Infant and Nursery school in Batley, West Yorkshire, discovered the ban after spotting that words relating to pigs had been removed from homework sheets.

Religious leader Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra told the paper: "It is rather sad. Muslims would not find the Three Little Pigs offensive."

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