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FOR more than 100 years it stood proudly as the centrepiece of England's oldest public park before being decapitated during a Second World War air raid. Now a row has broken out after plans to replace Derby's historic Florentine Boar statue were abandoned for fear of offending Muslims, whose religion considers pigs to be 'unclean'.

A replica of the statue, a crouching wild boar, was intended as the jewel in the crown of a Pounds 5 million National Lottery- funded restoration of the city's Arboretum Park.

But councillors have called for the proposal to be scrapped amid sinister warnings that the statue would be vandalised or stolen.

The Florentine Boar statue stood from 1840 until 1942 when it was beheaded by a German bomb. But it was last week branded 'offensive' during a meeting of Derby Council's minority ethnic communities advisory committee.

Councillor Suman Gupta, a Labour representative for Derby's Derwent ward, told the meeting: 'If the statue is put back in the Arboretum, I have been told it will not be there the next day, or at least it won't be in the same condition.

'We should not have the boar because it is offensive to some of the groups in the area.' The park is in an area known for its large Pakistani community.

Shokat Lal, a community leader, said at the meeting: 'In Normanton the majority of residents are Pakistani Muslims.

'I'm not saying we have to lose the boar, but we could put the boar in the city centre so it does not cause offence to people.' Local historian Christopher Harris told The Mail on Sunday: 'We are living in a multicultural society and I hope that would include English culture.

'If the boar had never been destroyed in 1941, these people would have grown up with it and would not have noticed it.

'Activists have jumped on the chance to make a statement. It is one that damns English culture-But the wild boar is part of Derby's culture.' He said a small minority of Muslims with extreme political views had issued veiled threats to the council over the statue.

The land for the park was donated to the council in September 1840 by Joseph Strutt, the first mayor of the Borough of Derby, a wealthy cotton mill owner who wanted to give the public a place to exercise.

He commissioned architect J.C. Loudon to landscape the area. The hollow ceramic boar was donated by Mr Strutt.

Sculpted on commission by W. J. Coffee - and based on drawings of a similar statue in the Market Nuovo in Florence - it was intended as a gift to the working classes of Derby.

Last week's committee meeting proposed that a statue of Mr Loudon should be erected at the Arboretum with a new site for the boar in the city centre.

Last night, Councillor Gupta told The Mail on Sunday: ' Communities change.'

Tory leader Philip Hickson said: 'The community is strong enough to stand a statue of a boar in a park. But we live in an age where sometimes things are a little more politically correct than they ought to be.'

UK: "porking yard" sign offends Muslims, owner hauled into court Galloping UK dhimmitude alert. You just can't make up this sort of thing. (But what's an "Asbo"?) "Car Park Sign Asbo 'A Joke' Says Pub Landlord," from the Scotsman, with thanks to plishman:

A man who was made subject to an Anti-Social Behaviour Order for putting up a sign saying "porking yard" in his pub car park, because it was offensive to Muslims, today described the court action as "a joke". Leroy Trought, 42, was given a two-year Asbo at a hearing at Bristol Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Magistrates ordered him to change the wording of the "porking yard" sign at The Swan With Two Necks in St Judes, Bristol, to "parking yard".

He was ordered not to display any signs that may be threatening, abusive or insulting at the pub, which is next to a Somali mosque....

But Mr Trought today said that imposing the Asbo was a joke.

He said the sign was intended to commemorate the large number of butchers' shops that used to be located in the area and he had never intended to cause any offence.

He said: "We ran a competition in the pub to think of a funny name for the car park and one of the customers came up with the name 'the porking yard'.

"I grew up in Bristol so I know that this area has traditionally had a lot of butchers. It was always known as 'pork alley' so 'the porking yard' just seemed to fit.

"There's a butcher across the street that has been here for more than 100 years. It's political correctness gone mad....

That it is, my good man.

Beat manager Adrian Williams, of Avon and Somerset Police, welcomed the Asbo. He said he had received complaints about the sign from school teachers, community leaders and members of the Somali community.

He said: "We are very pleased that the order has been made following complaints from the community.

"It shows that this kind of behaviour, which is provocative, will not be tolerated."

Will anything non-Islamic be long tolerated in Britain?

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/005483.php

Thanks Fred... loads more examples out there. Lets not forget the poor woman who had her house raided by police (yet again taking the word of a muslim over that of an infidel, and in effect doing the duties of "religious police" enforcing sharia law in the west) to remove porcelain pigs from inside the windows of her house. I tried to look for a link, and then realized someone had posted it over at jihadwatch:

China pigs controversy
The Times (26.05.98) reports that: "Nancy Bennett, 49, who faces possible prosecution after complaints from Muslims over a display of china pigs in the front window of her home in Leicester, had a quotation from the Koran alongside them, it emerged yesterday". The first national newspaper to report on the case was the Sun (25.05.98). To date, there has been no reports from Leicester papers. The Independent (26.05.98) reports that Ms Bennett, who lives near the Highfields Mosque, claims the complaint about the pig ornaments "was made after she went to the police to report allegations of harassment. It is understood that the pigs were displayed alongside a quote from the Qur’an which said: ‘Let there be no coercion in religion’. Leicestershire Police were investigating the matter and would be sending a file to the Crown Prosecution Service, who might consider bringing charges against Ms Bennett under the Public Order Act (Dundee Evening Telegraph, 25.05.98).
Ms Bennett explained that on 24 May: "I arrived home to find the police about to break into my house. They had a warrant. They said they had had complaints about the pigs from neighbours, they considered it was a public order matter and took about 17 of them. I have been told not to replace them. I am sure I am not the only person in Britain who collects ceramic pigs". Leicester Federation of Muslim Organisations’ spokesperson, Yaqub Khan, said that people believed Ms Bennett was aware of the possibility of causing offence, particularly as her house was on the main route to the Central Mosque. He said: "There are a number of people who keep china pigs in their houses and we have never objected to those" (Kidderminster Express & Star, 25.05.98).

More islamic fun (I was drinking alcohol because it was Eid, you stupid dhimmi!):

Eid drink-driving
Naseem Ul-Haq Kashwana, the owner of an import business in Salford, appeared before Rochdale magistrates charged with drink driving. Mr Kashwana explained that he had been celebrating the Muslim festival of Eid by drinking whisky with a business associate. When stopped by police for erratic driving and breathalysed, he was found to be considerably over the legal limit. He was banned for 12 months and fined £175 with costs (Rochdale Observer, 09.05.98).

And then there this one:

NIKE BUILDING PLAYGROUND AT ISLAMIC CENTER TO ATONE FOR ALLAH LOGO ON SNEAKERS
November 24, 1998
Are Muslims "shaking down" the giant Nike shoe firm over a questionable design which some say resembled the word GOD in Arabic? Selling forgiveness -- a new twist on the old Catholic practice of peddling indulgences -- may again become a religious rage.
Nearly two years ago, Islamic groups became incensed when the giant Nike Corporation, a leading sneaker manufacturer, rolled out a new model with the word "Air" written on it in stylized lettering. Muslims charged that the logo resembled the Arab script for the word "Allah," which, of course, is considered a profane and sinful use of their deity's name.
At first one is tempted to simply chalk this up as just so much nonsense. After all, people "see" or "sense" everything from alien space craft in the night sky to "sinful" subliminal messaged in videos and on rock 'n roll albums. Isn't this just so much absurdity and hypersensitivity?
The Nike Corporation doesn't think so, and in Falls Church, Virginia, the giant multinational company has begun construction of a $50,000 playground at a neighborhood Mosque to "make amends" for the logo gaffe, reports Associated Press. Nike recalled more than 38,000 pairs of the sneakers, and agreed to construct several playgrounds for Muslim communities. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Washington, D.C.- based Muslim group that originally raised the Nike logo issue, demanded that the firm should submit to a "sensitivity training" session on the Islamic cult. Executive Nihad Awad even wanted the shoe manufacturer to investigate whether "there are people at the company who want to insult Muslims..."
When Nike agreed to withdraw the sneakers from the market -- the first time any of the company's products had been pulled -- CAIR issued a press release describing the action as a "victory" for millions of Islamists in the United States. "Many ... may not understand how offensive it is to have the name of God on a shoe," said Awad. "The shoe gets dirty. It gets muddy. It gets sweaty. We believe this is disrespectful to the name of God."

And this one:

Coca cola says "No Mohammed No Allah!"
If you read the stylized Coca-Cola label in a mirror, you can see it says "No Mohammed No Allah." Many Muslims worldwide still think that the name Coca-Cola was chosen and written in this font deliberately to insult Muslims when the brand-name is reflected in a mirror...