Are Piggy Banks Offensive?

[K.Dub]

Piggy banks are given the chop as bank tries to attract young Muslims

Knorbert the piglet has been dropped as the mascot of Fortis Bank after it decided to stop giving piggy banks to children for fear of offending Muslims.

The decision has been viewed in the Netherlands as the ritual slaughter of a popular pig by political correctness. To some, it is the latest sign of uncertainty in Europe's most tolerant country about how far it should go to accommodate the sensitivities of minorities. It comes as the country is braced for a backlash against the plans of Geert Wilders, a right-wing politician, to release a critical film about the Koran.

Pigs are considered an unclean animal by Muslims and Jews, and Knorbert was culled after seven years as the Fortis mascot. A spokesman told the Dutch media that “Knorbert does not meet the requirements that the multicultural society imposes on us”. The bank added that there had been “a number of reactions to the pig” and that a new gift and character were being developed that would be “fun for children of any persuasion”. Children who had received a Knorbert piggy bank for opening a EuroKids account will be given a junior encyclopaedia instead.

The bank, which is based in the Netherlands and Belgium, was keen to play down the influence of cultural concerns on its decision. Lilian Tackaert, a spokeswoman, said that Knorbert had reached the natural end of his product life cycle. “The piglet was indeed being given to children opening a savings account but we ran out of stock, although some branches still had some,” she said. “Now we are looking for something else.”

Ms Tackaert said that the bank was in tune with the openness and welcoming nature of Dutch society. She repudiated the statement that multiculturalism meant that Knorbert's luck had run out.

“Of course we want to reach a wide audience of customers and what the kids like is important — they are changing very quickly in terms of taste,” she said. “We will be looking for a new product that will fit the wider target audience.”

The Muslim population of the Netherlands is put at about one million, or 6 per cent of the total of 16 million. Most are of Moroccan or Turkish origin.

The Government rejected calls in 2006 to ban women from wearing a veil, but it is due to consider plans to outlaw the burka in schools and to ban head-to-toe Islamic robes among government employees.

Mr Wilders, the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, is preparing a ten-minute film which he has said will show “the real face of Islam”.

Mainstream politicians fear that the film could trigger a wave of violence against Dutch interests overseas or an attack similar to the one that killed the film-maker Theo Van Gogh in 2005 after his film Submission accused Islam of condoning violence against women.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3419706.ece

[es-jay]

Piggy banks are given the chop as bank tries to attract young Muslims

why don't Jewish kids have a problem with a piggy bank??

Mr Wilders, the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, is preparing a ten-minute film which he has said will show “the real face of Islam”.

i will see this if it is ever released.

[Elevz]

Knorbert the piglet has been dropped as the mascot of Fortis Bank after it decided to stop giving piggy banks to children for fear of offending Muslims.

The decision has been viewed in the Netherlands as the ritual slaughter of a popular pig by political correctness. To some, it is the latest sign of uncertainty in Europe's most tolerant country about how far it should go to accommodate the sensitivities of minorities. It comes as the country is braced for a backlash against the plans of Geert Wilders, a right-wing politician, to release a critical film about the Koran.

The bank, which is based in the Netherlands and Belgium, was keen to play down the influence of cultural concerns on its decision. Lilian Tackaert, a spokeswoman, said that Knorbert had reached the natural end of his product life cycle. “The piglet was indeed being given to children opening a savings account but we ran out of stock, although some branches still had some,” she said. “Now we are looking for something else.”

Ms Tackaert said that the bank was in tune with the openness and welcoming nature of Dutch society. She repudiated the statement that multiculturalism meant that Knorbert's luck had run out.

There's no doubt about the political positions of the writer of this article, just as there's no doubt about the nature of these acts by Fortis. The journalist is simply looking to build an impressive story; the Fortis representative is only trying to avoid any damage that might be done. She's only slickly talking her way out. That sure is political correctness at its finest: they're being afraid of the whims of anybody, and constantly in search of compromises. No man could maintain a sane mind like that, but a corporation will do fine that way. What does that tell you about the nature of today's society?

The Muslim population of the Netherlands is put at about one million, or 6 per cent of the total of 16 million. Most are of Moroccan or Turkish origin.

Those numbers are rather disfigured. The vast majority of the muslims live in the major cities. I believe they're approaching 50% of the urban population, something like that. Surely you won't find them in areas where the conservatives live; they've come to the major cities because their own conservatism is more accepted by the progressive left wingers, who say they have a right to maintain their identities and express their hatred for our tolerance. Really, that's what it comes down to: they're conservative outsiders, they love the tolerance the Dutch show them, but they won't show any tolerance in return. They'll (sometimes literally) bash homosexuals, and their youth may threaten anyone passing by on the streets, yet they expect to experience freedom off a welcoming and open hearted people.. Some of them will be the first to create an uproar whenever they feel like someone's discrediting them - it seems as if flammability is in the muslim's nature - but surely you won't hear any of them protecting anyone else's rights, freedom of expression or thoughts. And what happens when yet another muslim kid slices up a classmate? The mayor of Amsterdam will have a cup of tea with their parents, to let them know things aren't supposed to go like that in this country. It doesn't take a university degree to estimate the results of such policies...

I'm not saying muslims are bad people, or that muslim cultures are thoroughly rotten. I believe an authentic muslim country can operate really well on its own, so long as they don't start getting itchy about the outer world. Let them go back to their muslim countries, and we can perfectly do business with them. The thing is, they do NOT blend in well with any liberal thinking. They simply do NOT fit in with western cultures. When they come here, they'll denounce anything that doesn't benefit their own culture or status, regardless of how contradictive their thoughts may be.

Some muslims manage to find a compromised state of mind - a sort of combination between western liberalism and islamic conservatism. The result is always a vague identity. Muslim hedonists? Liberal muslims? That's like talking about a libertarian communist, or a fish with six legs and a hat on. It is simply impossible to follow the lessons of Mohammed whilst accepting that for the weekend the man next door will be the woman next door. How can you live in peace and halal, when your coworker friends eat hamburgers for lunch? How are you supposed to love the people around you, when all around you people do exactly as Allah forbade? Should you really wish to enjoy the ability to live in a country that respects you for who you are, but you can't respect it back because its respect goes against everything you stand for?

I think the answer is rather simple. A liberal muslim is a sinner and a lost soul, and a threat to himself. A conservative muslim would not be able to bear living in a liberal country. To think that some people (extremist politicians like Wilders included) believe that muslims are plotting to take over the western world through breeding and terrorism... How could they even get there, unless we let them?

[7even]

^The problem is that many white people are so ridiculously tolerant for anything non-white that I am at a loss for words. (Nowadays you are considered a nazi in Germany as soon as you hate assholes.) Those neo-leftish idiots create frustration amoungst regular people, and some of those become neo-rightish idiots as a result of the circumstances that were created by the ridiculous tolerance of the leftish fucks. Those rightish quasi-nazis then lead to more leftish fucks as a result. It really is a fucked up situation.

[Sikotic™]

Some people need to chill.