islam ruins everything in infidel lands
- Ban is apparently aimed at avoiding offence among Jews and Muslims
- Publisher prohibits mentioning anything that 'could be perceived as pork'
- Oxford wants authors to consider 'cultural differences and sensitivities'
- Muslim Labour MP Khalid Mahmood calls ban 'absolute utter nonsense'
Published:
23:42 GMT, 13 January 2015
|
Updated:
00:28 GMT, 14 January 2015
Schoolbook authors have been told not to write about sausages or pigs for fear of causing offence.
Guidance
from leading educational publisher the Oxford University Press
prohibits authors from including anything that could be perceived as
pork-related in their books.
The
bizarre clampdown, apparently aimed at avoiding offence among Jews and
Muslims, emerged yesterday during a discussion about free speech on
Radio 4’s Today programme.
It was immediately branded ‘nonsensical political correctness’.
Scroll down for video
Oxford
University Press bans authors from including pork-related material in
their books, so stories about sausages (left), pigs (centre) and bacon
(right) are prohibited
Presenter
Jim Naughtie – whose writer wife Eleanor Updale is in talks with Oxford
University Press (OUP) over an educational book series – said: ‘I've
got a letter here that was sent out by OUP to an author doing something
for young people.
‘Among
the things prohibited in the text that was commissioned by OUP was the
following: Pigs plus sausages, or anything else which could be perceived
as pork.
‘Now,
if a respectable publisher, tied to an academic institution, is saying
you've got to write a book in which you cannot mention pigs because some
people might be offended, it’s just ludicrous. It is just a joke.'
Muslim
Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said: ‘I absolutely agree. That’s absolute
utter nonsense. And when people go too far, that brings the whole
discussion into disrepute.’
The OUP says its guidelines exist because it needs to make its educational material available to as many people as possible.
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Muslim Labour MP Khalid Mahmood called the ban on pork-related content 'absolute utter nonsense'
A
spokesman said: ‘Many of the educational materials we publish in the UK
are sold in more than 150 countries, and as such they need to consider a
range of cultural differences and sensitivities.
'Our
editorial guidelines are intended to help ensure that the resources
that we produce can be disseminated to the widest possible audience.’
But
last night the publishing rules were ridiculed amid doubts either
Muslims or Jews would be offended by mention of farm animals in a
children’s book.
Tory MP Philip Davies said: ‘How on earth can anyone find the word “pig” or “pork” offensive?
'No word is offensive. It is the context in which it is used that is offensive.’
He
added: ‘On the one hand you have politicians and the great and the good
falling over each other to say how much they believe in freedom of
speech and on the other hand they are presiding over people being unable
to use and write words that are completely inoffensive.
'We have got to get a grip on this nonsensical political correctness.
‘The political correctness brigade appear to have taken control of our schools.
'The Secretary of State needs to get a grip over this and make sure this ridiculous ban is stopped at once.’
He
added that perhaps one good thing to come out of the Paris terror
attacks was a groundswell of support for freedom of speech.
The
chief executive of campaigning group Index on Censorship, Jodie
Ginsberg, said: ‘It is difficult to imagine any context in which images
of everyday objects – like pigs – or the word itself should be banned
from being used in a children’s book.’
A
spokesman for the Jewish Leadership Council added: ‘Jewish law
prohibits eating pork, not the mention of the word, or the animal from
which it derives.
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Authors following the Oxford guidelines would not be able to mention characters from Peppa Pig (pictured)
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