This is how "Feminism" works in Scandinavia now. Talk about completely irrelevant issues, while ignoring Muslim immigrant rapes of native Scandinavian women or secular courts using sharia. It's a fraud.

Posted by: Norwegian kafir at March 10, 2005 7:59 AM

And I still think Sweden and Norway are the worst PeeCee nations on the planet. At least Canada produced Mark Steyn and Holland Theo van Gogh, Pim Fortuyn and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Posted by: Norwegian kafir at March 10, 2005 8:02 AM

I'm for telling the radical feminists to either shut up and get back in the kitchen, or go marry Najdi and Hijazi men.

Posted by: Kepha at March 10, 2005 8:11 AM

What kind of people worry about who is depicted in a manual? Who cares if it is a cartoon dog assembling the product....by the end of the project I am usually ready to stab the little figure with the enclosed allan key anyhow. Really with everything going on in the world today someone has the time to worry about something like this.

Posted by: USAgirl at March 10, 2005 8:52 AM

I live near an IKEA store. It has thousands of customers, including lots of veiled women and bearded men and children....now, what I might worry about is the fact that I have seen lots of children with their Muslim parents,eating hot dogs and warm cinnamon rolls at the snack bar at IKEA. I thought that both of those foods (pork in the hot dog and the spice cinnamon) were harram...forbidden. I think that IKEA should immediately revise their menu, in order that certain customers not be offended or tempted! I have also seen veiled women there, without male escorts, purchasing merchandise....yes, I do think that IKEA warrants further investigation.

Posted by: maryrose at March 10, 2005 9:59 AM

IKEA has something of a history of bowing to Muslim pressure:

"In 1994 a Swedish paper revealed that Kamprad (the guy who started IKEA )had attended Nazi party meetings as a youth in 1943. When this was made known, Kamprad quickly sent a note to all Ikea employees, apologizing for his actions and saying they were "a part of my life which I bitterly regret." But charges of anti-Semitism rose again when it was discovered that the company was peppering the Middle East with stores, but avoiding Israel. Ikea's relatively late entry into the Israeli market seems to imply that it was bowing to the Arab boycott."

However, since this article appeared in the Jerusalem Post, IKEA has opened a store in Israel:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1109128767420&p=1062388728918

Posted by: MJ at March 10, 2005 10:27 AM

OMG, now we have to worry what some muslim thinks about instruction manuals? Stop the world...I want to get off!

Posted by: Carolyn2 at March 10, 2005 10:55 AM

Wow. We don't see a double-offender too often. Should I as a white male be offended to make it a trifecta?

Posted by: waterboy at March 10, 2005 11:04 AM

Waterboy, white males don't count, didn't you know? If it weren't for white males, all racism, injustice, bigotry, and violence would vanish from the planet! So say the multiculturalist morons.

Only "minorities" have rights, and special rights at that. Whites are minorities in many places, but they don't get any special or even equal rights. The world has gone bonkers; it's enough to drive one completely mad.

Posted by: Susanp at March 10, 2005 11:37 AM

Dayum, I forgot that I've no rights, especially since I may have had relatives that could have been white Catholics at the time of the Crusades. I feel SO guilty. Thanks for reminding me, Susanp. [/sarc]

It's nice to get acknowledged on my first post! w00t!

Posted by: waterboy at March 10, 2005 11:54 AM

So does the sensitive Mooslim hubby assemble the furniture for his darling bride?

Perhaps this is a question for Ask The Imam:

http://www.islam.tc/ask-imam/index.php

Posted by: Dana at March 10, 2005 12:16 PM

I don't know but that it is indeed good news that the feminists are waking up to the fact that they shouldn't find common cause with orthodox Muslims.

Too many of them have attempted to validate their own sense of "victimhood" by identifying with perceived victims. (I say this as a woman with feminist leanings who has been sickened by the feminist "mainstream".)

Posted by: waterdragon52 at March 10, 2005 1:55 PM

Perhaps this is a question for Ask The Imam:

I looked at some of the questions on that site. Some of them were real problems, concerning divorce or abortion and genuinely sad. Others seemed funny, until you realise that these are people whose prayer life and relationship with God is so non existent that they actually have to ask advice about whether they have recited the correct prayer on entering a hotel room, or whether they can take a shower standing up. And that is the saddest of all.

Posted by: Granny Weatherwax at March 10, 2005 2:25 PM

Ask the Imam is hilarious. I wonder if some of the questions are real.

I suppose in the caliphate Muslims wouldn't be doing much in the way of self-assembly as they would get a Dhimmi to do it for them.

A weak Hadith has the Prophet (PBUH) cutting the hand of an infidel who stole his Allen key (Allah key?) and a couple of sprockets.

Posted by: Interestd at March 10, 2005 2:45 PM

The ask the imam site (amonst others, I enjoy the islam q&a site also) show just how micromanaged their lives are...allah must have loads of time on his hands if he has to keep reams and reams of notes on which muslim is standing in the shower, did this other muslim have an impure thought, did another accidently look at a woman, etc etc..it just goes on and on. Many of the questions center around whether an action or thought they have had "negated" their prayer or fast...one woman on the q&a site wrote in panicking because she wore pants under her tent during prayer...whats the worry in that we may wonder...well it seems the said pants "showed the form of her body when she bent over" even though the pants were under her robes....it is incomprehensible to me how one can worry about such minute things...I am glad that my God is not on a schedule and that anytime I like I can talk to Him, I dont need to worry about what I am wearing at the time, I really dont think he minds. It is easy to see how mohammad controlled his followers, and that is the reason that there are so many rules...keeps the minions in line.

Posted by: USAgirl at March 10, 2005 3:02 PM

USA girl:

Yes, in some ways Muslims/Mohammed must have a very low opinion of their God. They think He's preoccupied with their bottoms, front and back, what goes into them and what comes out of them, solid liquid or gas. Yes, even gas. Apparently if you break wind while praying it invalidates the prayer. God is all-seeing, and presumably all-smelling, so you can't get away with the silent but violent ones. And it's no good pointing at someone else when you let rip as Allah knows the secrets of your hearts. And farts.

A weak Hadith has Mohammed (PBUHRRRRT)riding into battle with his companions. The latter keep stopping to eat their prunes and senapods. They weren't regular troops, you see....

Posted by: Interestd at March 10, 2005 3:24 PM

If this was the extent of dhimmitude I would say "who gives a damn". If this example related to any other group, people would simply say the company is marketing to its customers. As Norwegian Kafir stated, this is what Swedees worry about at the same time women are being raped and its unsafe to walk the streets of Malmo.

Posted by: johnb at March 10, 2005 4:18 PM

Good thing the Norwegian PM is on top of those sexist manuals from IKEA. Clearly this is a subject that requires attention from the top. Maybe he should bring it before the UN security council so they can issue a resolution against IKEA?

Posted by: Belisarius at March 10, 2005 6:14 PM

I asked the Imam about what kind of wife-beating rods to buy at Ikea, but still now word. Neither did he respond to my query regarding the assembly of the fart-stopping pine plug I saw in the Ikea catalogue. Maybe it's just as well, because if I had a screw loose I'd be one sorry fellow. Hey, maybe that's what the Moslem problem is. Yeah, I'll ask the Imam.

Posted by: sonofwalker at March 10, 2005 9:31 PM

Muslims in Oz must be seething with rage because our IKEA catalogue shows a very capable-looking, unveiled woman assembling a drawer, with a screwdriver. On the same page, there's a picture of Dad, looking like a dufus, holding a pretty pillow, while Mum is pushing the laden cart full of IKEA stuff. And even worse, on another page, we've got Dad in a red polka-dotted apron, bringing a pot to the NYGARD dining table. Is this haram or what?

And many claim Australia is sexist! Ha!

Posted by: feralee at March 10, 2005 10:04 PM

I assume Reuters has corrected the article since you wrote this post, as the text you quote doesn't appear in it.

The current version, anyway, makes clear that Kjell suggested the theory that fear of offending Muslims was to blame. Ikea then pointed out that this was nonsense, that many of its instructions already had women in them, and that it would do studies to see if anyone cared about including more.

Posted by: john b at March 14, 2005 7:12 AM