It's April 28, 2024, 05:12:23 AM
Piggy banks are given the chop as bank tries to attract young Muslims
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”.
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.
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.