Guess what? The Muttaween -- the religious policemen, not to be confused with The Religious Policeman (hurry up and finish that book so you can get back to blogging!) -- finally caught on that a cartoon pig was supposedly an instrument of the Peacock Angel.

Camper from Qatar Living recounts the tale, beginning (as is appropriate) at the beginning:

In Qatar there is only one decent bookshop (that happens to be a Saudi chain) that has a few shelves of English books. Shopping there is hit or miss - you don't go there to look for a title. You go there in the hope of stumbling upon something interesting.

The kids selection is not bad though. The other night we saw Disney's "My Very First Encyclopedia with Winnie the Pooh and friends". We grabbed it and thought it was exactly what we needed for our daughter - not only does she love Winnie the Pooh but she's also started taking a keen interest in nature.

And upon opening said Encyclopedia, camper discovered that Piglet had been blacked out. On every page. You'll get a small, painless lesson in current Middle Eastern events during camper's dissertation on why he found the censorship more disturbing than that which was censored.

This whole incident reminded me of a discussion with a friend from South Africa a few years ago. He was explaining kindness and mercy in Islam. He said that a even a pig, a creature which is seen as "despised" by Muslims, is a creature of God and should thus be treated with kindness and mercy. So while we should not eat it, that doesn't meant that Muslims are interested in torturing or trying to exterminate them... even if only with a brand new 3-inch black marker. If a pig was injured, it would be a Muslims duty to assist it.

One commenter wondered why the presence of Piglet in the bookstore was deemed offensive, but the presence of Mein Kampf was *not*...

The whole post is here. Don't forget the comments, either. Every now and then, it's nice to be reminded that Sensibility trumps Sensibilities -- and there are folks closer to the source than we are who don't want Wahhabism shoved down *their* throats, either...