The news article below concerns the response of a Vermont community to a Muslima who was offended by a public display of the word “bacon”.
Update: Here is a video of the news story about the Winooski Bacon Crisis:
Such stories are not all that unusual these days. In fact, a complete cave-in after a single culturally enriched complaint (or even before any such complaint is made) is becoming more and more typical.
It’s not the just the surrender to sharia that’s so dismaying, but the obsequious, truckling, craven dhimmitude of it. A thousand years ago, Christians and Jews submitted with full cowering humility after seeing the murderous brutality and rapine of Muslim invaders. Today, in the nominally free United States of America, full surrender occurs just because someone is offended, before there is even a whisper of violence.
Here’s the story, from WPTZ News:
Advertisement removed after resident expresses offense
Business advertises food, neighbor offended
WINOOSKI, Vt. —A sign on a lamp post at the bottom of the Winooski Circle displayed the words “Yield Sneakers Bacon” until Friday morning. The bistro owners took it down.
It got there as part of “Operation Bloom.”
A city program put it in place to keep its flower beds beautiful. If businesses do some gardening they can post an advertisement where they do it, but the word “bacon” on the Sneakers Bistro sign started a discussion about diversity on the Winooski Front Porch Forum.
It started with a post from one woman who wrote that the sign was insensitive to those who do not consume pork. She said as a Muslim she is personally offended by it.
The owners of Sneakers spoke to WPTZ. They say they’ve reached out to the individual who made the post and proactively took the sign down. They also say they regret any harm caused by the sign, and that their goal was never to cause stress or bad feelings.
“It’s nice that they were respectful enough to take it down,” said Caleb Wiley an area resident, “but I also think they shouldn’t have, or had to at any right.”
Other Winooski residents joined the conversation, and online too. One post reads the word “bacon” is not offensive. It’s something that describes food.
Winooski’s city manager spoke on behalf of the city. She said:
“The cool part of living in a diverse community is that it’s not always comfortable. It’s a fascinating place with lots of opportunities for conversation. The City has to pay attention to a lot of factors while acting within what we can regulate,” said Katherine “Deac” Decarreau.
Others recognize it’s a complicated issue, too.
“I respect her religion and her right to believe what she wants but I’m pretty sure the first amendment extends to bacon and the selling of it.”
Sneakers’ owners say their goal is to provide a joyful place for the entire community.
The Winooski Islamic Community Center was not available for comment.
For the record: There is a polite, reasonable way to respond to absurd complaints of this sort, one that does not involve abject surrender. The company’s statement should have read something like this:
It is unfortunate if someone’s feelings were hurt by our use of the word “bacon”. However, this is the United States of America, where freedom of speech is a universally respected right. Anyone who is offended by bacon is perfectly entitled to exercise his or her right of free speech and issue a counter-bacon statement in response.
For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.
Hat tip: PP.
Anyone want to bet it was orchestrated? Someone or some organization put her
up to it.
There was an incident in the Los Angeles area a few years ago where a Muslima
was offended by something the local rail commuter system did…totally
ridiculous but the rail honchos caved.
If it works then keep doing it.
Is there a strategy afoot to see how far we (ie Europeans) can be pushed before we respond? It certainly seems like it.
I don’t see the point in taking the sign down. The “offended” muslim will not eat in their restaurant anyway since they serve bacon. In fact, they might have done the muslim community a favor by leaving the sign up as a full blown freak out might have ensued had a sensitive muslim gone to this restaurant not knowing there was actual bacon on the premises!
“. . .had a sensitive muslim gone to this restaurant …”
Muslims are not more sensitive than anyone else. They are pampered by cowards around them in the west and they enjoy it. Do you know that in their original countries are not treated royally as they are treated in the west. And their whining is getting longer, deeper and worse because westerners are all ears and eyes to indulge the supremacists.
Will ever this cause a bitter and vengeful from the cowards?
Why do you think this time the Gaza aggression against Israel has no end in sight. Simply because the more Gazan terrorists provoke Israel the more west erners sympathize with Gaza and blame Israel regardless of each ceasefire has been breached by Gaza and no cowards mentions that.
No. Muslims are much less sensitive than other people. Most others wouldn’t behave as Muslims do because they’d be concerned about offending the poeple they live amongst. Not so Muslims. From the way they drive to the way they conduct their business – they don’t give a **** about anyone else.
Let me give you a for-instance – I was visiting relatives a couple of weeks or so ago. On the Sunday we walked up through the woods to an ice-cream parlour a couple of miles or so away. I should have taken my camera. Half the customers were Europeans dressed in their casual sunny day attire, the other half were Muslims dressed in their pyjamas and ninja outfits. They were so out of place as to be offensive – but of course they had no perception of it.
Bacon can be bought in the Supermarkets in Bahrain, as can pork sausages, Islam, like Judaism only forbids the eating of pork products, anybody reacting to pictures and signage is trying to pull somebody’s leg….
Now smuggling bacon into Saudi is more of a challenge….
You know how can that Bistro be a ” joyous place for the WHOLE community” as long as they even serve HAM, BACON and pork????
WAIT for it … they will have a FREE, big luncheon FREE of PIGGY products for their NEW muslim/Islamic pals!!
Well, observant Jews don’t tend to take offence over the issue, just you know who… again.
Ethan Allan’s body is now rotating so rapidly that you could power the entire state of Vermont by wrapping it in copper wire and placing it between a set of magnets.
Firstoff, thank you for posting this story!! I saw it on the late news(last night, 22Aug14), but could not locate it this morning to share.
Apart from the mistake of acquiescing, this piece unmistakably illustrates the ignorance &/or immaturity of the Americans who do not recognize that this acquiescence is a defeat to an enemy of this nations Bill of Rights, along with being a step closer to the implementation of Sharia.
One may be certain, that those attending Mosque today in the greater area of Burlington Vermont(& probably elsewhere, as they are funded from afar), were cheering this seemingly tiny victory.
If the above argument is too difficult internalize, try this on: where is the tolerance of diversity on the Islamists part in this instance? Do you suppose they’ll be more tolerant, say tomorrow?
Reacquaint yourselves with American ideals before they’re gone.
Thanks again for saving this story from disappearing.
Followup:
Vermont’s shame spread to The Corner at The National Review Online by 25 August, 2014, after a business owner and the Mayor of Winooski, Vermont conceded the 1st Amendment of the united states Bill of Rights to one thin skinned whiner, and their online cohorts*.
* if not actual cohorts, simpleton PC groupies who are apparently incapable of working out, that this case of whining is not evidence of adult tolerance on the part of the whinee.
p.s Is WordPress soft on the 1st Amendment too? The first time I posted this update I received a message to “slow down you’re posting too fast”. Huh! It’s three days later …
The business owners did not put a lot of thought into that decision. One complaint about a sign?
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. When those who do not know what they have in the liberties they now take for granted, vigilance is sorely lacking.
A large percentage of Hindus are vegetarians (as are very religious Buddhists); *all* meat is considered very bad “karmically” by them. But one never hears of this sort of ridiculous nonsense by them. They simply eat vegetarian food in their homes, and let those who would like to eat meat do that. Its a free world, and everyone gets to make those choices. Who the hell is this “muslima” to impose her likes/dislikes on us. For that matter, I find the idea of people calling a pedophile and mass murderer a “prophet” extremely offensive, not to mention potentially dangerous to all of us (so many cases of “sudden jihad”). So please shut down all mosques first and throw these muslims the hell out of every non-muslim country.
Throw this “Muslima” back into Pakistan/Saudi Arabia. She’ll be happy there.
A fascinating point. And it’s not a matter of free speech. Imagine if Jewish immigrants to the UK and USA in the 1890’s had protested against signs advertising pork, bacon, ham etc. The response would have been … you’ve gotta be joking: you come here and then expect us to change our way of life! Nuts!
Imagine if Hindus in the Western world protested against the existence of butcher shops and the advertising of meat. Unthinkable.
The adherents of both religions don’t protest for the simple reason that their religiously based decisions to not eat meat or certain types of it is understood by them to be a matter of their personal choice and what people not of their religions choose to eat is rightly regarded as being their own business.
And that’s the distinction between Muslims and all other religions: Muslims demand that everybody else subordinate themselves to Islamic sensibilities. And of course the larger more subtle point is that Muslims want to dominate the public sphere and have all non-Muslims metaphorically walking on egg shells: will this offend Muslims?
In the not too distant future Muslims in the West will be demanding that people not be permitted to walk dogs in public parks and in public streets because Islam deems dogs unclean and thus merely seeing a dog in public is hurtful, insensitive and offensive to them.
15 years ago a car insurance fraud investigator told me whenever he met suspect Muslim insurance claimants he would extend his left hand to them for the introductory handshake. The left hand is “haram” in Islam because that’s the one that is used for toilet activities. If they looked at him askance he would “innocently” explain he was left-handed. After a while he began to extend his left hand with a knowing smirk: he was signalling that he was the investigator, they were the investigated and he not only distrusted them, he knew they were Muslims and he not only didn’t give a hoot whether it was offending them, he was actually hoping he did hope it was in order to set the tone of their future relationship on the right track.
When you meet a Muslim extend your left hand.
The dog thing is already happening:
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/06/02/Sign-in-East-London-Park-Says-It-Is-An-Islamic-Area-Now
It is worse than that the closer you get to the center of evil:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/raymond-ibrahim/revisiting-the-silent-extermination-of-iraqs-christian-dogs/
Many Muslims don’t take offence either. Some muslims, like some jews eat pork. The blame here lies on those who took the sign down, not the crazy lady who complained about it.
You think if any of us found an aspect of muslim culture offensive, such as the word halal, anything would come of it other than us being called insensitive to their beliefs?
I mean halal and kosher labelling is offensive at a certain point because it levels the accusation that our food is unclean and not fit to eat. It’s insulting whether it’s meant to be or not.
Every aspect of muzzlim “culture” is offensive. They make me sick. To think of pristine Vermont, New Hampshire, and places like that overrun with Muzzies, Somalis, etc makes me physically ill.
Vermont was dhimmi before we knew the word. If Islam hadn’t come along to give it an even better raison d’être, the state would have eventually choked on its own self-righteousness.
See their governor-presidential candidate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Dean
He is Obama without the cynicism or hateur. Had he won the Dem nomination, he’d have been a robustly popular candidate. The stress of campaigning, the spotlight, etc. led to the infamous Dean Scream.
Dean’s socialist programs worked in Vermont for the same reason they worked in pre-immigrant Norway, i.e., a small homogenous population. It is a humanly-sized sovereign state.
OTOH, to give you an idea of the thin-skinned nature of liberals, Dean left the Episcopal Church in a snit about bike trails. At least that is the surface story; reality is more complicated.
New Hampshire is rowdier, having taken in many refugees from Taxachusetts.
I am utterly appalled at the submission of the establishment to a ridiculous “complaint”. Show some Rocky Mountain Oysters and
put Bacon back on your sign for goodness sake. This Woman has
every right to her beliefs but the world of pork eaters has an equal
right to what we eat and what we advertise !!!!!!
This is about compliance to Sharia law. At first, it is very small things, getting the infidel population accustomed to acquiescing to small demands from the Muslims. They bide their time, having more children, and growing their populations through immigration. More demands will be made, with more than just one or two Muslim voices expressing them. Our natural impulse will be to be tolerant, will be of a multicultural acceptance. Make no mistake: the Muslims know this about our nation and will use it against us. Before long, they have reached critical mass in our population and will start to agitate en masse on issues other than the word “bacon”. By that time it will be too late. Never give in to their demands, ever. Every individual stands equal before the law, no exceptions. We must stand fast on this.
Unfortunately, this is not about equality before the law. The law was not invoked. No one was arrested, or charged, or even “advised” by the police.
This is about social conformity: dhimmitude through universal agreement to be “tolerant”. Individuals, charitable organizations, businesses, and public officials — all toe the line. With that kind of lock-step, laws are not needed.
Agreed. I think I was trying to say that this is the first step toward their ultimate goal in instituting Sharia law. It’s like the boiling frog analogy. Get the population accustomed to capitulation on seemingly small matters, then ratchet it up over time as needed. If we continue to be compliant there will come a day in America when people will be charged and arrested for speaking out.
Baron-
You’ve nailed it. One of the most terrifying trends in the West is the growing capacity for self-dhimmification that is described by news stories like this.
I would love it if, by some means, we could take members of the extreme-left, moral relativist, tolerance brigades and drop them off in a Muslim country during Ramadan.
I would then encourage these folks to have a lovely picnic in a public place, because being able to have a nice lunch on a sunny day under beautiful blue skies is a right all humans possess.
Then, I would wonder how long it would take these fine folks to be disabused of their naivety when the locals come to arrest/beat/stone/torture/kill them.
Now, I have posted this argument a few other places around the Web, and it is shocking to me how many other posters cannot fathom that this is so. It is as if many of the hardcore leftists have a need to believe that Muslim countries are bastions of peace and enlightenment for all.
Yes, it is massive ignorance combined with a refusal to fact the facts–a refusal because the facts do not comport with their religion. I mean the religion of multicultural-diversity-PC-leftism. Or maybe I mean PC-leftist-multiculturalism. It hardly matters. This kind of belief is held with the fervor and intensity of any religion so it is often called a secular religion.
“Joyful place” & “muslim” are two concepts that can never coexist. The citizens of that town should let Sneakers know how offensive it is to kowtow to these beheaders.
If I was the business owner a larger, more prominent sign would’ve appeared.
Probably even a picture of a suckling pig ready for carving.
Problem is that those knuckleheads would probably damage the garden, sign and restaurant, and a [demonstrably unmanly] judge would let them off with a warning.
I don’t think this has anything to do with the Bill od Rights, with PC, with Vermont or ahnything like that. It has to do with cowardice and deracination of White Anglos and Nordics with respect to their heritage, their civilization, their religion.
Something has happened to the Anglo spine of America, some spongiform osteroposis over the last 150 years. A 2nd generation Hungarian or Polish American or a Russian immigrant would publicly tell the Muz interloper that this is a white Christian country, temporarily submerged by a foreign tide through the treason of its elites, and to (4-letter word here) off.
Thanks for the post. Our area is now and very obviously targeted by islamists, who intend on setting up shop here. Thye beleive us to be a weak and easilly submissive poulation. But if we stick together, we can protect our civilization. But we must stick together, and also organize to fight back.
How about this “muslima” protest against what her co-religionists are doing, on large scale, to yazidis and christians in N. Iraq? No, I bet she won’t do that. And I further bet that she supports them privately. After all, Islam posits itself as the “end of all other religions”, so that what the IS is doing is absolutely on track for this evil cult.
I have zero sympathy for this muslima. She should go to ISIS areas and live among her fellow barbarians.
Get lost muslima.
I will repeat this again, ad nauseum, why in Canada does Campbell’s Tomato Soup have the crescent on it certified halal? Why? What meat is in Campbell’s Tomato Soup? Ask yourself why? Many brands of tomato soup are every bit as good and I will never buy Campbell’s tomato soup again, or any other products which are halal from Campbell’s as long as I see that designation. So long to childhood memories.There is a long study from Australia which goes into halal certification, who gets paid, easy to look up.
Thanks for your very useful and intelligent comment. The battle against this very dangerous threat to our civilization must be waged on all fronts, one of them being the consumer front. We must systematically boycott all halah products. But moreso, we must get the message out and organize. Buying anything halal is infact a submission to islam, paying the djimi and giving money to the mosque, which preaches your death.
I do hope there is an organized boycott of Sneakers to the point where they have to shutter their doors.
Period.
End of story.
And yet another reason why our country is going to hell. Seriously, the word ‘bacon’??? It’s a restaurant, and shouldn’t be bullied by their menu. Bacon, that’s pig, not dog, cat, guinea pig. Get a flipping life
As I am typing this Muslims are beheading innocent Christians.
I am offended by the word Muslim.