When the Fox Preaches
by Michael Devolin
“When the fox preaches, look to your geese.” –German proverb
No sooner had the blood dried (literally) from Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris, France than we hear of Oxford University Press’ decision to censor from its publications any reference pertaining to pork or pigs, and all this because such allusions may offend Muslims. So much for “this little piggy went to the market” and the “three little pigs” and Black Forest Ham. No friends in this game. Never mind that no pig ever, purposely, set out in the morning to offend Muslim sensitivities. After all, pigs are only animals, eh?
What’s the world coming to? First, HarperCollins publishes a Middle East Atlas minus the State of Israel, and now Oxford University Press announces they intend to publish books with all mention of pigs or pork omitted. The Wolf is permitted but all pigs have to go. I’ve just read only this morning one blogger pointing out that Jews are also forbidden to eat pork and yet they’ve never demanded of the non-Jewish world that all mention of the three little piggies be erased from our consciousness.
I think it’s time to announce to Islam’s 1.6 billion followers that it’s now the non-Muslim world’s turn to make incredible demands of the Muslim world and not the other way around, Oxford University Press and HarperCollins be damned. After America’s 9/11, England’s 7/7, France’s Charlie Hebdo/kosher grocery store atrocities and lastly—but no less horrible—the many terrorist attacks in Israel committed by “devout Muslims” to date, I think it’s long overdue that the West begins demanding from the Muslim world certain changes in cultural traditions. After all, the three little piggies never hurt anybody. Not so the madmen of Islam.
OUP stated that “…we encourage some authors of educational materials respectfully to consider cultural differences and sensitivities.” Well then, let us first “encourage” Muslim clerics “respectfully” to stop referring to our Jewish citizens as “the descendants of swine and monkeys,” or to Israeli Jews as “Zionist pigs”. Or even better, let the entire Muslim world stop referring to the non-Muslim as “infidel” or “kaffir”, as though our choice to reject the religion of Islam outright was made out of hereditary weakness or immorality. Quite the opposite is true.
Let’s remind the 1.6 billion followers of Islam that those Muslims who purport to be following the real Islam (and I don’t fault them for that boast) are the same Muslims beheading journalists and aid-workers on YouTube or raping Kurdish women. I’m not especially worried that the “best and brightest” of Islam may be offended upon reading about pigs and pork and sausage. I’m far more offended to read too often that the Western world, from the bottom to the top, is being exploited and intimidated by the most devout of this extremely violent 7th century religion. We should be uncomfortably concerned that the Muslim world is offended by the existence of pigs upon Earth? We should be disconcerted that the Muslim world is enraged by the presence of a sovereign Jewish state in the very land Jews are indigenous to? I don’t think so.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn cautioned, “It is time in the West to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.” Let the Muslim world live up to our morals—not us down to theirs. Let Western democracies make demands of Islam’s leaders and imams and not the other way around. Since when does the fox preach to the geese? Worse yet, why would the geese ever pay homage to the fox? The fox does not have the welfare of the geese in mind. When the fox preaches, look to your geese.
Michael Devolin has been a member of JDL Canada since the 1980s, and has served as the personal bodyguard to Meir Weinstein, National Director of JDL Canada, at several high-profile trials, including the Jim Keegstra hate crimes trial and the Imra Finta war crimes trial.