Posted on 01/27/2007 12:39:40 PM PST by LibWhacker
The imam of the Taipei Grand Mosque complained to Taiwan's foreign minister for sending him a greeting card for the Chinese New Year showing four pigs, a newspaper said on Saturday.
After receiving the New Year card, Imam Ma Hsiao-chi pointed out to the Foreign Ministry that the card was offensive to Muslims, the Liberty Times reported. Muslims do not eat pork and regard pigs as unclean animals.
But the ministry defended Foreign Minister Huang Chih-fang's sending out the greeting cards, which were printed because 2007 is the Year of Pig according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
"Sending New Year cards is part of our culture and has nothing to do with religion. Minister Huang sent the cards to people in Taiwan, not to Muslim countries, but we still want to thank Imam Ma for reminding us," the Liberty Times quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Chien-yeh as saying.
The Year of Pig begins on February 18 with the start of the Chinese New Year celebrations, the most important holiday for Chinese all over the world.
Last month, Taiwan's postal monopoly the Chunghwa Post Company Ltd issued the Year of Pig stamp, but warned Taiwanese not to use the stamps when sending letters and parcels to Muslim countries or Muslim friends.
China has also banned images and mention of pigs in television advertisements aired over the lunar new year to avoid offending the country's Muslims.
China's ban also applies to cartoons and traditional paper-cut images of pigs, and to slogans such as "Golden Pig Brings You Fortune!" and "Wish You a Happy Pig Year!"
The Chinese lunar calendar follows the Chinese zodiac, or horoscope, which has a 12-year cycle. Each year is represented by an animal - rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
The Year of the Pig....to funny.
Year Of The Pig bump!
I suppose he prefers the year of the chicken?
You gotta be kidding, that's a whole web site, not one post in one thread. Don't forget just in the past year or so...
- Burger King ice cream cones
- an English five-year-old girl wearing a strapless blouse for her passport photo
- Coca-Cola's logo backwards or upside down or something
- cartoons
- kites
- weather forecasts ("sorcery")
- anti-bacterial hand wash ("contains alcohol")
- dogs
- some random squiggle on a certain brand of sneakers
- statues
Ok there's my ten, next contestant please...
Barry White typo of the day! Ohhhh yeaaaahh baaaaby....
The person who made that drawing of "Mohamed" served several years in jail because of it.
How Britney Spears celebrates March 17th?
"HEIL ALLAH!"
That's true, unfortunately. The Little Satan could use one of those First Amendments, such as the Great Satan possesses. But if you skip down further in that page I linked from the cartoon caption, you'll come across a cheerier story. It describes how an American hero used pig in a less PC time.
BTW, Tatiana Soskin, the woman who drew the cartoon, was a supporter of Kach, an extreme right-wing party founded by Rabbi Meier Kahane, who also founded the Jewish Defense League. In 1990, Kahane was assassinated in New York by El-Sayid Nosair, an Egyptian immigrant who had turned jihadist. The jury let him off on a weapons charge (New York, remember?), but he was later convicted of involvement in the first WTC attack. He currently resides in Colorado Supermax.
Doesn't he want a swine time?
Imam Ma and all of his followers are just trouble makers making an issue out of a non-issue.
Some of these Muslims need to learn to be more tolerant of others customs...
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/bacon1.html
Amen!
The dry rub I use on baby back ribs (William's Rib Tickler) has a bit of brown sugar in it. My baby back ribs probably tastes a little like the pig candy.
Poor fat rules.
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