What the ... Three little pigs

Aunty reports ...

A story based on the Three Little Pigs has been turned down from a government agency's annual awards because the subject matter could offend Muslims.

The digital book, re-telling the classic fairy tale, was rejected by judges who warned that "the use of pigs raises cultural issues".

The CD-Rom digital version of the traditional story of the three little pigs, called Three Little Cowboy Builders, is aimed at primary school children.

The Three Little Cowboy Builders has already been a prize winner at the recent Education Resource Award - but its Newcastle-based publishers, Shoo-fly were turned down by the Bett Award panel.

The feedback from the judges explaining why they had rejected the CD-Rom highlighted that they "could not recommend this product to the Muslim community".

They also warned that the story might "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)".

The judges criticised the stereotyping in the story of the unfortunate pigs: "Is it true that all builders are cowboys, builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?"

Ms Curtis said that rather than preventing the spread of racism, such an attitude was likely to inflame ill-feeling. As another example, she says would that mean that secondary schools could not teach Animal Farm because it features pigs?

Her company is committed to an ethical approach to business and its products promote a message of mutual respect, she says - and banning such traditional stories will "close minds rather than open them".

Becta, the government funded agency responsible for technology in schools and colleges, says that it is standing by the judges' verdict.

OK .... ok .... firstly, did anyone actually ask any Muslims if it was offensive to have childrens stories about pigs ?

Secondly, since when were the building trade offended by childrens stories ?

I didn't know the average construction worker was so thin-skinned, I have friends who work in construction and they can refer to some of their clients as cowboys, and if a wolf can blow down my house, I'd call the builders a bunch of cowboys too.

Now, if any Muslims would like to let me know they are offended by kiddie piggy books, I'll accept that.

If any construction worker would like to let me know that kids stories about shoddy workmanship offends them, I'll accept that also.

This all seems a little bit ridiculous to me, but then again I shouldn't be surprised really.

UPDATE : The only resource I could find connecting Islam to Pigs is from the Quran [5:4] ...

Forbidden to you is the flesh of an animal which dies of itself, and blood and the flesh of swine

Looking deeper into it, what is meant by the above extract is that the flesh of pigs is forbidden for eating. This is actually the same in the book of Leviticus [11:26] ...

The carcasses of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not cloven-footed, nor cheweth the cud, are unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean.

Although pigs have split hooves, they do not chew the cud, making them forbidden to Jews and Christians also. The relationship between sin and animal sacrifice is more complicated, and the crucifixion of Jesus was supposed to atone for the sins of all to avoid such sacrifice, by which Christians believe they are forgiven for their sins by asking God for forgiveness.

A lot of the focus on not eating pigs will be as a result of them being considered unclean and thus likely to cause disease. This may have been a prudent step at the time, possibly a prudent step today, but that is the subject for a different post.

There is no further passages that I can find that refer to pigs in terms other than as forbidden food. All these points considered I feel a certain degree of cultural ignorance is playing a part, unless they were looking to not offend believers in all the Abrahamic religions. Britain is still considered a Christian country, if you can call four percent confirmed attendance religious, compared with forty percent in the US or eighty percent in Colombia.

On a side note, I was actually talking to a friend who works in construction last night, but I forgot to ask wether he was offended by childrens stories about shoddy workmanship.

2008-01-23 16:05:52