English Flag Offends Muslim Prisoners

[winchable]

I'm just offended all around really,
I'm also quite offensive to be frank,
I'm offended by my own shear offensiveness to a point that the offence taken by myself at myself offends others, which in return I find offensive.
The offensiveness of others tends to offend me most, to put it bluntly, I'm offended by the offence taken at the offence taken.

The comment about racial backlash because of this (Kat Stevens posted that, which I find delightful in view of his namesake's new moniker and lifestyle choice) is bang on.
Just based on the reaction of some of the people here pretty much solidifies that idea, the more offended you are by something the more offended other people are going to be by your offence and that's when people get the stakes and torches out and I'm being torn into halves by equally angry mobs because I'm White, English Born and raised with St. George's cross tattooed in my back, but My Mum's Arab and her family is Muslim.

"We hate him, we will take care of him"
"No we hate him more, let us have him"
"The hell you can mate, we're going to string this filthy Sandnigger/wog/towelhead/cameljockey up and make an example."
"We will deal with the infidel/whitedevil/englishman"
"I have an idea, we'll string the bloke up together."
"Yes, let us kill him as a team."

Actually as an aside note, my death might serve the greater good of mankind by rallying the human race behind my lynching and subsequent disemboweling.

Back to my original point, in light of the afformentioned offences I vote we end this awful earth experiment and focus on ruining another planet, perhaps Mars?

 

[George Wallace]

No.  Mars is out.  After all it is named after the God (damn another Religious connotation.) of War.  Can't have that now can we?

 

[winchable]

No you're right, perhaps if everyone moved to one side of the earth and jumped we could spin off in to the sun and just settle our differences like sensible folk.

 

[geo]

Hmmm....

If the muslim inmates of uk (and CDN?) prisons have a problem with the red cross of St George because it offends them..... does that mean that the female personnel in the correctional service will have to wear "chador" or "burka" and walk behind the inmates in a diminutive / submissive role with eyes cast down?............. NOT!

If they want to protect their sensibilities, they have no business being in jail in the 1st place.
Should we start chopping off hands for theives?............. You don't want to be offended? then stay out of jail.

 

[George Wallace]

I wonder if they also take offence to the FTA guy?  After all, Mercury is also a God.  

Does that mean that they will object to the fact that flowers are delivered to their homes/place of work/or where ever?  How many Copyrighted Logos and symbols will have to be trashed in this new PC World.  I imagine someone will find plaid offensive...  :

 

[Kat Stevens]

Actually as an aside note, my death might serve the greater good of mankind by rallying the human race behind my lynching and subsequent disemboweling.

Why not? 2000 years ago a guy was nailed to a tree for saying it would be nice to be nice to each other for a change.  Look how that snowballed.  So now we've spent 2 millenia making others be nice, by force if necessary... see how well that's worked out so far?  I personally am offended by children.  Their shrill little voices, and eternally snotty noses, and that annoying tendency to have fun every now and then.  Teenagers too, don't get me started on teenagers......Ban anyone under the age of 25.  When I take over, retroactive abortions are being implemented.

 

[geo]

starting with your Mum? (JK)

 

[Michael Dorosh]

This is madness! Absolute madness!!! No one, regardless of religion, should feel entitled to go through life without being exposed to something that "offends" them...

Where do we stop? Pig paraphernalia offends Muslims? Ban them... Model fighter jets offend peaceniks? Ban them... Truck calendars offend tree-huggers? Ban them... if we head down this road we'll end up in a sterile, Orwellian world...

I can't believe things like this actually happen, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills! Has the world lost it's mind?   ??? Arghhh...  

Calm down and read the key sentence up above.

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.

I'd suggest the timing was bad.  I'd also suggest it is possible the Muslim gentleman or lady had other issues and wanted to make a point, or just stir up trouble. Or possibly was genuinely offended.  I'd say they had a right to be.  Like buying pizza for the whole office and having bacon on it; Jewish guy would probably get a bit miffed.  He has that right.  Before we order pizza, generally we ask stuff like "do you eat meat" in case they are a vegetarian, etc.  Common courtesy.

It extends backwards too; Jewish guy or Muslim guy shouldn't assume someone was trying to offend him.  If I knew I had a Muslim staff member, I would hope to be savvy enough not to distribute "pig-shaped stress relievers."

Of course, if I was really trying to piss the guy off or offend him, I'd cover my desk in little piggies and watch him squirm.

 

[ExistancE]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templars

You're thinking of the Hospitallers.

I think most modern scholars like to think of it as the first European campaign of overseas colonization, since the Crusader kingdoms were basically Western European colonies in a predominantly Muslim population. So yeah, I'd agree that they were primarily acts of christian Aggression. It was a little bit more complex back then, since there were more than just two sides. Various Muslim and Xtians factions often allied with each other against their co-religionists, e.g. The sack of Constantinople, the center of Eastern Christianity, by Western Catholics,   and the interactions between the Arabs, Sejuk Turks,   the Mongol Il-Khanate, Egyptian Mamluks, etc, who were all Muslims but were mutually antagonistic.

Thanks for the post. I suppose because the templars were founded by a frenchman I somehow got it into my head that they were french.

I do have to disagree with you on the idea that the Crusades were acts of Christian agression.

If memory serves me the very root of the crusades in the late 11th century was an appeal to the western church headed by pope urban from the byzantine emperor who had just suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the turks. For hundreds of years the eastern empire had been fighting off repeated muslim incursions. This was the result of the rapid growth of islam through conquest. Areas like lebananon and palestine that are commonly thought of as muslim were hugely christian until being overrun by muslim armies. This pattern of islamic agression against europe continued until the siege of vienna in the late 17th century. 8 or 900 years earlier the muslims had overrun spain and made it into france. I think they were stopped at the battle of tours. Anyway it seems to me that by the time the crusades rolled around europe was being squeezed pretty hard by islam, especially in the east, which had been acting like a buffer. If the crusader states, for the relatively short time they held power, are considered imperialistic then so be it. I still think the crusades were the result of rapid islamic military expansionism and were more defensive on the part of europe then anything else. I apologize for sketchy dates.

 

[48Highlander]

Like buying pizza for the whole office and having bacon on it; Jewish guy would probably get a bit miffed.   He has that right.   Before we order pizza, generally we ask stuff like "do you eat meat" in case they are a vegetarian, etc.   Common courtesy.

I hate olives.   Now, in the past, when people ordered pizza, and had olives on it, I'd just pick them off and toss 'em.   In the future though, thanks to your guidance, I shall get miffed and sue

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I hate olives.   Now, in the past, when people ordered pizza, and had olives on it, I'd just pick them off and toss 'em.   In the future though, thanks to your guidance, I shall get miffed and sue

You're out of order, mister.  Get miffed, whine and cry, then sue even though the problem rectified itself two months ago.  It's the new Canadian way.

 

[Slim]

I have just one point to make....

I have no trouble making room for someone elses belief system, even to the point of dialing back my own.

However it should be give and take.....Not give and give some more because its being demanded by a certain percenage of the population.

That BS and has no place in this country...If people like a certain belief system then they aught to go to a country where that system already holds sway...Not my home!

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I think that's fair enough, Slim. 

If we order pizza, I'll be considerate enough to ask if anyone objects to onions or bacon.  I would be shocked to have someone tell me I could no longer order onions or bacon for myself because the mere presence of such in the room was offensive to someone.

 

[winchable]

So they gave out stuffed piggy stress relievers as a part of preparing for Ramadan?
Meaning they gave a Muslim a pig shaped stress ball as a part of the preparations for Ramadan?? As a joke sort of thing?
I mean give an ultra-Orthodox Jew a pig shaped ball at Hannukah and see if he doesn't say something.

2 sides to this, one of them is saying: Knowing that we live in litigation land (England moreso) and knowing how touchy certain issues are, why in God's name would you try and make such an un-PC gesture to a group of people who generally aren't cool about jokes at their religions expense?  It's called using common sense, just because you don't live in the PC world we all have to live in doesn't mean you're not going to get in shit when you don't act right.
Oh, right and yes Muslims whine at everything  :crybaby: I'm so hard done by, send all those wogs back from whence they came.

Now that being said, I think the real issue is this:

The fact that someone has actually gone out of the way to make this a rule/law in a government office rather then someone going up to someone else and going "Yeah, giving you a pig shaped ball was kind of stupid, especially right now." or "Mate, a pig shaped ball as a gift at Ramadan? Don't be a wank" "Aw, sorry man they were the only ones left in stock."
Why do I get the feeling if some of us actually behaved like we do here the answer would be "I meant every bit of it, this is my protest, I don't give  damn what you think."
Once again, common sense and meeting in the middle.
Guy A apologised for making a joke that might have came at a bad time, Guy B didn't involve everyone from Brighton to Edinburgh in a quest to eliminate the evil squishy pig from his desk, which could have easily been tossed into a dustbin and replaced by a paperweight or equally space occupying item.


THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is a 40 Pound solution to a 10 Pound problem.
Swatting a fly with a sledgehammer, killing a kangaroo with a cannon etc. etc....slaughtering a pig with a ritulalistically oversized novelty knife...ahaha...ahh. *whince*

 

[Kirkhill]

Che, did you check out which Council it was?  To my knowledge it was Bradford. 

Doesn't Bradford have a large muslim population?  It seems kind of strange that somebody would have screwed up that badly.  It would be like handing out action figures of the Pope at a Rangers home game.

 

[NavComm]

I think that's fair enough, Slim. 

If we order pizza, I'll be considerate enough to ask if anyone objects to onions or bacon.  I would be shocked to have someone tell me I could no longer order onions or bacon for myself because the mere presence of such in the room was offensive to someone.

I agree but unfortunately that's already happening in workplaces all over the place. In my civvie job we have a worker who is sensitive to scents (sometimes), indoor temperature, (only while at work, she insists on keeping the place like a 475 degree oven but at home she leaves her windows and doors open all the time), noise (but this depends on whether or not she's taken her meds that day).

None of the bosses will stand up to her. She's intolerant of just about everyone and everything. I guess it's the old squeaky wheel syndrome...

I've had to refrain from bringing or wearing certain foods, flowers, anti-perspirperant, breath mints and the icing on the cake for me was when she  once said the person I commute with is wearing too much perfume and it's sticking to me so can I please just TELL my commuter friend to stop wearing perfume!

 

[paracowboy]

In my civvie job we have a worker who is sensitive to scents (sometimes), indoor temperature, (only while at work, she insists on keeping the place like a 475 degree oven but at home she leaves her windows and doors open all the time), noise (but this depends on whether or not she's taken her meds that day)..I've had to refrain from bringing or wearing certain foods, flowers, anti-perspirperant, breath mints and the icing on the cake for me was when she   once said the person I commute with is wearing too much perfume and it's sticking to me so can I please just TELL my commuter friend to stop wearing perfume!

legally, that qualifies her for a throat-punch.

 

[48Highlander]

None of the bosses will stand up to her. She's intolerant of just about everyone and everything. I guess it's the old squeaky wheel syndrome...

I've had to refrain from bringing or wearing certain foods, flowers, anti-perspirperant, breath mints and the icing on the cake for me was when she   once said the person I commute with is wearing too much perfume and it's sticking to me so can I please just TELL my commuter friend to stop wearing perfume!

Simple response:  "No.  Next question"

If none of the bosses will stand up to her that certainly doesn't stop you from doing it.

 

[DFW2T]

I don't have anything intelligent to add to this topic but I will say that as one who fought for others rights in their own homelands,  I would like to think that immigrants who come to Canada would consider our (and now for many..their) country's' ethics, codes,religions  etc. and have a little common dog about the whole thing.  You can kill your neighbor in Bosnia/Kosovo  (even though you've been friends for years) and not feel remorse because it's a supposed right to rid your community of the Albanian/Serbian etc. (what ever side your on) scourge. You can blow up a school yard of children in Baghdad because the suicide bomber was trying to strike a coalition convoy and (you will still sit at the right hand of Allah with all the virgins etc blah blah blah)  .......As unacceptable as that is,  it's your country.......that's the reason NATO or the UN were there in the first place.  When you come to MY country and demand MY government to make sanctions on how we Canadians live life well that's a different.  I wonder if I went to Iraq, Syria, Afghan etc as a civilian worker and demanded Sundays off (because that's my religious holiday)(....how many days would I live??)
 I know as a Canadian culture we are the "MELTING POT" ( those in elementry school in 70's might remember the phrase)  where do we stop?  The way it's going, my children will NOT be able to live anywhere they desire within (as they should) in Canada if they are not the right religion, color etc.
 I should have GOOGLED this first but,  when you immigrate to Canada.....SHOULD YOU NOT WANT TO COME HERE BECAUSE IT'S A BETTER PLACE THAN WHERE YOU CAME FROM?  CAN YOU ASSIMILATE WITHOUT LOSING YOUR IDENTITY AND STILL LIVE IN THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WITHOUT FORCING OUR GOVERNMENT TO CHANGE OUR IDENTITY??
  End of my rant is, I don't bring pork, porn or alcohol to the Muslim countries I work in because I respect the cultures of the countries I  am a guest of.....
   Why can't those who can't live in their own country be happy with their new country that they are now a part of?  Maybe they are just the type of people that are never happy anywhere?!

 

[Spr.Earl]

Aint Mutli Cult great? ;D