UK: Teachers drop the Holocaust and the Crusades to avoid offending Muslims

Someone is afraid of the Religion of Peace™.

Daily Mail: Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed.

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.

The findings have prompted claims that some schools are using history 'as a vehicle for promoting political correctness'.

The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, looked into 'emotive and controversial' history teaching in primary and secondary schools.

It found some teachers are dropping courses covering the Holocaust at the earliest opportunity over fears Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic and anti-Israel reactions in class.

The researchers gave the example of a secondary school in an unnamed northern city, which dropped the Holocaust as a subject for GCSE coursework.

The report said teachers feared confronting 'anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'. [...]

UK: Muslim Takes Sauna in Hijab

More political correctness gone mad in Britain.

The Sun via Dhimmi Watch: A MUSLIM woman in full hijab robes was allowed to swelter in a SAUNA because worried staff did not want to offend her.

She then jumped into the sports centre’s swimming pool to cool off while still wearing the black top-to-toe Islamic dress.

Staff did not know if they should enforce a dress code which asks customers to wear SUITABLE clothes.

People in the sauna — all wearing normal swimming cossies — were amazed as the woman joined them in the steam room in her robes.

Last night surprised Muslim spokesman Taj Hargey asked: “How can you swim properly if you wear a hijab?”

After ten minutes in the sauna and ten minutes in the pool the mystery woman changed out of her wet hijab into a dry one in the changing rooms and left alone.

Yesterday members of the David Lloyd Leisure centre in Oxford said they were baffled by the women’s actions.

Club member Ian Caldwell, 46, was sitting in the sauna when the fully-dressed woman walked in.

He said: “I pointed out that it was a sauna and asked her if it was appropriate. All the other women in there were all in bathing costumes.

“When I saw her in the pool later, she was still wearing the Islamic outfit.

“The pool attendant said she was allowed to wear this due to her religious customs. It was just political correctness gone completely barmy. I told the manager that it was my custom to attend saunas naked, as they do in Sweden, and said I trusted he would find that equally acceptable.

“But to be serious, this is a question of hygiene, not religious rights.”

U-Turn Over Three Little Pigs Musical

An update on this story.


BBC: Comeback for 'non-offensive' pigs

Organisers of a children's concert have given the go-ahead for the three little pigs to appear, after they were banned over fears they might offend Muslims.

Honley Junior School in West Yorkshire was to perform the Roald Dahl story of Little Red Riding Hood and the pigs - but was told to substitute puppies.

Now Kirklees Council has stepped in to allow the pigs a reprieve. No complaints had been made about the pigs appearing in the Kirklees Primary Music Festival event.

'Something barmy'

The committee organising the concert decided Muslim children may not want to sing about pigs.

However, council education spokesman Jim Dodds told BBC Five Live the decision had been overturned.

He said: "There is something barmy going on here and it has happened on my watch.

"I can tell you now that the three little pigs will be back into the school musical festival.

"The decision (to ban the pigs) was made by well-meaning people - it was the wrong decision, so let's stick with the traditions."

University Of Leeds Cancels Talk On Islamic Extremism and its Links With Nazi Germany Over "Security Concerns"

The Telegraph: Freedom of speech row as talk on Islamic extremists is banned

A leading university has been accused of “selling out” academic freedom of speech by scrapping a talk on links between the Nazis and Islamic anti-semitism after allegedly receiving emails from Muslims protesting about the event.

Matthias Küntzel, a German author and political scientist who specialises in the threat of Islamic fundamentalism, was told yesterday by the University of Leeds that a talk scheduled for yesterday evening, and a two-day workshop, on Hitler’s Legacy: Islamic Anti-semitism in the Middle East, had been cancelled because of security fears.

In a statement yesterday, two academics in the Leeds German department, which had organised the event, claimed the university had bowed “to Muslim protests”. Dr Küntzel said he had given similar addresses around the world and there had been no problems.

He added: “I was told it was for security reasons - that they cannot shelter my person. But I don’t feel in any way threatened. I know this is sometimes a controversial topic but I am accustomed to that and I have the ability to calm people down. It’s not a problem for me at all. My impression was that they wanted to avoid the issue in order to keep the situation calm. My feeling is that this is a kind of censorship.” ...

Dr Annette Seidel Arpaci and Morten Hunke, both members of the German department, said in a statement yesterday: ”The reason the university gives for the cancellation of the talk and seminars by Dr Küntzel are security concerns. These concerns are founded on emails received by the office of the Vice Chancellor. The sudden cancellation is a sell-out of academic freedom, especially freedom of speech, at the University of Leeds.“

One of the protest emails, from a student who describes himself as ”of both Middle Eastern and Islamic background”, complained that the title of the event was “profoundly offensive”. It added: ”To insinuate that there is a direct link between Islam and anti-semitism is not only a sweeping generalisation but also an erroneous statement that holds no essence of truth.”

However, last night the university denied the claims. It said: "The decision to cancel the meeting has nothing to do with academic freedom, freedom of speech, anti-semitism or Islamophobia and those claiming that is the case are making mischief. Nor are we bowing to threats or protests from interest groups. The meeting has been cancelled on safety grounds alone and because - contrary to our rules - no assessment of risk to people or property has been carried out, no stewarding arrangements are in place and we were not given sufficient notice to ensure safety and public order.”

UK: School Renames Three Little Pigs Play To Avoid Offending Muslims

The Daily Mail: Church school renames Three Little Pigs to avoid offending Muslims

The story of the Three Little Pigs' battle with the Big Bad Wolf has delighted children since it was written more than 150 years ago.

But the tale highlighting the merits of hardwork and practicality has become the latest to fall victim to political correctness.

A junior school production of the children's story has been renamed the Three Little Puppies for fear of offending Muslims.

Organisers of a children's music festival have altered the popular characters and lyrics because of the multi-cultural nature of the youngsters involved and their parents in the audience.

[...] Organisers of the Kirklees Primary Music Festival decided to change the script to be 'sensitive' to Muslims at a recent committee meeting.

Committee member Gill Goodswen, head teacher of Stile Common Junior School, defending the move.

She said: "We have to be sensitive if we want to be multi-cultural. It was felt it would be more responsible not to use the three little pigs.

"We feared that some Muslim children wouldn't sing along to the words about pigs,' she said. [...]

Pigs Purged Out Of Fairy Tales In Norwegian Kindergarterns

From Dhimmi Watch:

Document.no, Norway's largest independent weblog, reports that in Norwegian kindergartens, pigs in traditional fairy tales are now quietly being replaced with other animals. A person who visits kindergartens to read fairy tales experienced that in stories by Asbjørnsen and Moe, the Norwegian equivalent of the Brothers Grimm, the word pig had been replaced with fox. When she discovered the same thing happening in another kindergarten, she wondered whether this was a new policy.

All in name of cultural "sensitivity".

Daily Star Journalists Chicken Out & Revolt To Cancel Islamic Spoof

Don't they know that Islam is the Religion of Peace™?

You can't make this stuff up:

Newsroom revolt forces ‘Star’ to drop its ‘Daily Fatwa’ spoof

(h/t LGF)

A staff revolt at the Daily Star prevented publication of a spoof Islamic version of the paper called the “Daily Fatwa”.

Muslim commentators said yesterday that the newspaper’s attempt on Monday evening to mock Sharia law could have sparked international protests similar to those that followed publication by a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

The mock-up “Daily Fatwa”, which promised a “Page 3 Burkha Babes Special” and competitions to “Burn a Flag and Win a Corsa” and “Win hooks just like Hamza’s”, was prepared to run as page 6 in Wednesday’s edition of the Daily Star, one of the stable of newspapers owned by publisher Richard Desmond.

The page also included a spoof leader column under the headline “Allah is Great” but left blank save for a stamp with the word “Censored”.

But shortly before the Star was due to go to press on Tuesday evening, concerned members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) called an emergency meeting in the 9th floor canteen of Desmond’s Northern & Shell building beside the River Thames.

After 25 minutes, the NUJ chapel passed a motion saying that the article was “deliberately offensive” to Muslims.

The motion read: “The chapel fears that this editorial content poses a very serious risk of violent and dangerous reprisals from religious fanatics who may take offence at these articles. This may place the staff in great jeopardy. This chapel urges the management to remove the content immediately.”

One source on the newspaper said: “We were worried that the building might be attacked and we thought there would be people outside burning copies of the Daily Star. Many of the newsagents that sell the paper are of Pakistani origin and would have been offended. So we were concerned both for the safety of the staff and the future of the paper.

Cancelled Mozart Play Sparks Debate

It seems that the cowardly decision of a Berlin Opera house to preemptively cancel a Mozart play because of "security concerns" (read "out of fear of Muslims going bananas and blowing the place up") has not gone unnoticed.

Fear of offending Islam spurs hot debate in Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - Four canceled performances of a Mozart opera have reignited an anxious and heated debate in Europe over free speech, self-censorship and Islam.

By canning its production of "Idomeneo," fearful of security threats because of a scene that might offend Muslims, Berlin's Deutsche Oper provoked front-page headlines across the continent and found itself fending off charges of cowardice.

Mozart is not Islam's enemy

Germany opens major Islam summit

The German government has met Muslim community leaders in Berlin amid a row over the cancellation of a Mozart opera deemed offensive to Muslims.

The Islam conference was a landmark initiative to improve the integration of Germany's three million Muslims.

It was overshadowed by the row over the opera Idomeneo. In one scene it was to show the severed heads of the Prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ and Buddha.

Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned "self-censorship out of fear".

"We must take care that we do not retreat out of a fear of potentially violent radicals," she said.

Merkel warns against bowing to fear of Muslim violence

"Offensive" Passport Picture Rejected

The Telegraph via LGF: Passport photograph of girl’s bare shoulders rejected ‘as it may offend’.

"A five-year-old girl's passport application was rejected because her photograph showed her bare shoulders.

Hannah Edwards's mother, Jane, was told that the exposed skin might be considered offensive in a Muslim country.

The photograph was taken at a photo-booth at a local post office for a family trip to the south of France.

Because of the way the camera was set up, the picture came out showing Hannah's shoulders.

A woman behind the counter informed them that she was aware of at least two other cases where applications had been rejected because a person's shoulders were not covered.

Mrs Edwards, a Sheffield GP, said: "I was incensed. I went back home and checked the form. Nowhere did it say anything about covering up shoulders. If it had, I would have done so, but it all seems so unnecessary.

"This is quite ridiculous, I followed the instructions on the passport form to the letter and it was still rejected. It is just officialdom pandering to political correctness.

"It is a total over-reaction. How can the shoulders of a five-year-old girl offend anyone?"

This is another interesting bit:

"A Post Office spokesman said: "Our offices have a Passport Office template which says what the photograph should and shouldn't be."Bare shoulders don't come into that at all. We can't see any instruction to that effect so all we can do is apologise to Mrs Edwards. It was clearly a mistake made by the clerk at the post office".

Possibly a Muslim?

"Offensive!" St. George's Cross Painted on Rooney

Daily Mail via Nordish: A new Nike campaign featuring England's footballer Rooney (see image above) is being condemned as 'offensive', 'exploitative' and 'tacky' by MPs and church groups. Among the reasons given:

The other aspect of it is the aggression contained in it, bound up with the flag of St George, which you might see as a throwback to the Crusades, which is hardly going to go down well with Muslim countries. It’s offensive on several different levels.