But why should they be? Everyone else is appeasing Muslims. Why should they be any different?
“Ikea ‘sorry’ for erasing women in Saudi book,” from The Local, October 1 (thanks to Alan of England):
Swedish furniture giant Ikea has apologized for removing all the women from their Saudi Arabian catalogue, following public outrage in Sweden including the EU minister slamming the action as “medieval”.
In the Saudi version of Ikea’s annual furniture booklet, all the women who appear in the catalogue published in other countries have been removed via photo retouching.
The altered images caused a stir when revealed in Swedish media, prompting an apology from Ikea’s head office in Sweden.
“We apologize and understand that people are upset,” said Ulrika Englesson Sandman, a spokeswoman for the Inter IKEA Systems, which owns the Ikea trademark and concept, to the Expressen newspaper.
“This is really unfortunate. We have been in contact with Saudi Arabia to discuss this issue. It should be possible to balance Ikea’s values so that we don’t discriminate people. At the same time, we try to adapt to the cultures and the legislation that are there,” she told Sveriges Radio (SR)….
Her sentiment was echoed by Sweden’s European Union Minister Birgitta Ohlsson, who branded the incident “medieval” on the social networking site Twitter.
Even the image of a female designer who helped design the company’s “PS” line of home furnishings has been removed from the Saudi catalogues….