Craving unsatisfied
The UAE joins Egypt. Since swine flu is not spread by eating pork, this banning seems to be simply an instrument of Islamization and a means to harass non-Muslims.
“UAE bans pork imports to combat swine flu,” from Reuters, April 30 (thanks to James):
DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates has banned the import of pork products as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu, a senior health policy official said Thursday.
Several countries have banned pork imports though the World Health Organization says swine flu is not spread by eating pork.
Pork products already on sale in supermarkets around most of the seven-member UAE federation would not be taken off the shelves, Mohmoud Fikree told Reuters in a phone interview, but the ban on new imports was open-ended.
“The ban will remain indefinitely, until we get a new decision from the ministry,” Fikree said.
An economy ministry spokesman told Reuters that hotels had also been banned from serving pork products, but that the market for pig meat in the UAE was small, since it is a Muslim country where restrictions on the sale of pork products already apply….
UPDATE: This follow-up Reuters story says that there was no official pork ban in the UAE, but that a general hysteria cleared the shelves of pork products anyway. (Thanks to Ammar for the link.)