posted
English Muslims don't like dogs, or even pictures of them.
quote:A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims.
Tayside Police's new non-emergency phone number has prompted complaints from members of the Islamic community.
Despite the popularity of the puppy, The Police are very sorry:
quote:A spokesman for Tayside Police said: 'Trainee police dog Rebel has proved extremely popular with children and adults since being introduced to the public, aged six weeks old, as Tayside Police's newest canine recruit.
'His incredible world-wide popularity - he has attracted record visitor numbers to our website - led us to believe Rebel could play a starring role in the promotion of our non-emergency number.
'We did not seek advice from the force's diversity adviser prior to publishing and distributing the postcards. That was an oversight and we apologise for any offence caused.'
I love some of the responses in the comments section. What was really interesting to me is that the United States isn't the only place where people believe they are part of a Christian nation. On the other hand, I am pretty sure that England doesn't exactly have an Evangelical population of note.
Posts: 2207 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Many nations in Europe have explicitly Christian governments, with state churches. Of course there are people in many of these places that think of their nations as Christian.
Of course, many people mean very different things than others when they say Christian nation.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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quote:What was really interesting to me is that the United States isn't the only place where people believe they are part of a Christian nation.
In fact, most countries where there are a majority of a religion and there is some history behind it will contain people who make this assertion. I'm surprised at your surprise.
There are an equal number of people posting who proclaim that Britain is a "nation of animal lovers" and others who blame it on religion in general.
I do believe it's an overreaction the way the daily mail is presenting it. I think the idea is that the picture has to be put up in corner shops and post offices and such and people object to displaying pictures of dogs on their property.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I think the crazy thing is that they apologized for it. If you are going to take offense about a dog being on a card you are way to easily offended.
If it was something that was religions, like a picture of Mohammad, I would understand the offense...and the reason for an apology. However, getting worked up over a picture of a dog seems to be going a bit far. I think this is worse than that Christian group that spends all its time turning in complaints about every little thing on TV.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
My surprise is that, all those nations that have so-called Christian governments don't really have them. Most of the laws have become purely secular. I didn't want to open a thread specifically for this question, but I now more than ever want to ask - what makes a nation Christian?
There is a difference between a Christian nation and a nation of Christians, or in this case of dogs. The "of" changes the implications.
Posts: 2207 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Well, insofar as the Queen is the head of state and the head of the Anglican church, I suppose England is a Christian nation.
Heck, there's even a religious preamble in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ("Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law," IIRC).
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
I wonder how many Canadians and English recognize those points? More importantly, do those facts have any impact on law making? Almost all "Christian nations" are such in name and history only. Religion seems to play no actual role. Compare that to Israel and Mulsim ruled countries.
Posts: 2207 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Hey, it's the Daily Mail. It's a tabloid just a step above the Sun. Most of their stories are either about how terrible they think immigration is, reality TV stars behaving badly or the 'latest' on Princess Diana - they don't seem to have noticed yet that there hasn't been a latest for 10+ years.
My boss buys it and I read it sometimes at lunch. One day last week, the whole of the third page was a photo story about a squirrel who had learned to eat from a bird feeder. Seriously. I guess I just like my newspapers with more actual news.
The dog is cute and appropriate and only one guy is actually quoted as having been offended. If someone doesn't like the card, they don't have to put it up in their shop - it's a free country.
Plus, the Councillor may just have been suggesting that the police had wasted money printing this card when, if they had actually asked the person they employ to check these things, they could have printed something no-one would have possibly minded putting up.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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