Back in October 2005, novelty pigs were ordered to be removed from the Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council in England.  The reason was that Islam is against pigs.  This did include Piglet, who is Winnie the Pooh’s friend if my childhood memory serves. Later that same month, both Halifax and NatWest banks decided against piggy banks for the very same reason.

Flash forward to today in Qatar where in a local bookshop that sells English books, Piglet has been erased (via Castle Argghhh!).  ‘Camper’ writes:

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.

We flipped it open and noticed that some of the pages had been vandalised with a black marker. We figured it must have been bought and returned after some kids had got there hands on it. Further inspection made us realise that this was actually systematic. Someone had deliberately “censored” out each and every picture of Piglet from hundreds of pages in the book with a black marker (my guess is that the book got caught by Saudi Censors enroute to Doha).

Read Camper’s full report and notice a Winnie the Pooh DVD complete with Piglet could be purchased in the very same bookstore.

Meanwhile in Cairo, there’s a giant book fair going on.  While I haven’t a clue if Winnie the Pook books are sold sans Piglet, what is being sold are copies of Mein Kampf and “anti-Christian polemics advocating conversion to Islam as the only solution to a flawed religion.”