The partner of one of the members of staff in the Ednam Road Department, who did not want to be named, said: "It's caused a bit of an atmosphere in the office. The staff did comply but it's just crazy - things like ornaments that have been on desks for years have had to be removed."

Head of Finance at the Council, Mike Williams, who is responsible for the department, said the member of staff said they were offended by the products in the run up to the Islamic festival of Ramadan.

He said a decision will be taken after the festival ends about whether the items are allowed back.

Asked what reason the member of staff gave in making the request for their removal, he said "It did not matter why it was considered offensive".

He acknowledged that some members of the department had seen it as "political correctness gone barmy".

Councillor Mahbubur Rahman, a practising Muslim, backed the ban and said he agreed with the action taken. He also said: "If it is a request made by an individual and other officers can reason a compromise, it is a good thing. It is a tolerance and acceptance of their beliefs and understanding".

Mahbubur, I say tolerance is about putting up with things you don't always like sometimes -- be it pigs, beef burgers, or indeed hijabs for many people. For those people in particular, they believe the hijab is the manifestation of an outright Islamic misogynism and an antiquated view on women's status. Where women`s rights are filed under contemporary fiction. They believe it is designed to control women's sexuality much more effectively than any other religion or ideological system and thus find it very offensive indeed! The ones that wear it, say they do so because they believe Allah has told them to do so and they believe it is worn for modesty where they will then be evaluated for intelligence and skills instead of looks and sexuality. Who is right? Both parties would say they are right. Tolerance is a virtue - it means enduring something with patience which is unfavourable.

We are tolerant of the hijab and Islam generally here in the UK in our public places through the policy of extending religious freedom to people of all religions, even though many sincerely disagree with the teachings, beliefs and/or practices of Islam but go along with it because it is current government policy to promote religious freedom, and diversity as positive cultural values in the United Kingdom. Of course many don`t agree with that either but that is another story!

This pig belief you have Mahbubur which I am sure is all to do with how you are barred from eating pork in the Koran and how you consider pigs unclean because they have cloven hooves and do not chew the cud?

Well no-one is asking you or others there to eat pig, pork or bacon in the council offices in Dudley are they? Well, are they?
I do not hold the same beliefs as you do and I err toward popular reasoning which now claims that these prohibitions were to prevent the diseases associated with pork. Early philosophers believed they were a rejection of pagan practices which often used the pig as a sacrificial animal or holiday food. But that is my belief!

However, I am expected in the United Kingdom to promote your view as a positive cultural value which I do as much as I can. Islam has many wonderful aspects but I do believe that it could be seen to be a more positive religion and I respect and acknowledge that it does provide a lot of meaning to the lives of over 1.2 billion people, and it should be a force that should be working with the world in the right way. I am very interested in Sufism or tasawwuf, as it is called in Arabic.
Like Buddhism, it is a way of life.
It develops an inner way to mystical union with God.
It frequently wears the cloak of Islam, and is sometimes seen as the esoteric dimension of the Islamic faith. A Sufi may or may not embrace Islam, but will be respectful of all faiths, seeing the path of truth that lies within their core.
Perhaps we should all learn from Sufism?

In the United Kingdom, it is current government policy to promote religious freedom, and ALL diversity as positive cultural values. You must therefore accept that others have different views and beliefs around pigs Mahbubur and therefore those views and beliefs are also a positive cultural value in the United Kingdom. So you should be promoting their views and beliefs too particularly as you are a Local Government Counsellor and by definition a representative of the "people"!
If not you should resign! Head of the Council, Mike Williams should go too!

As a positive cultural lesson, I hope you find the information on pigs within this article very informative to you and others and realise the importance they have in our own indigenous traditions in Britain and Ireland and other traditions which are just as important, honourable and viable as your own!!!

I believe we are all Spiritual Beings having a human experience, that is we are Spirit immersed in human experiences.
I believe that there is a Loving Higher Power which is so powerful that everything happens for a reason in alignment with Divine Plan. That there are no accidents, coincidences, or mistakes - everything is unfolding perfectly from a Cosmic Perspective.
Religion, faith and a belief system are used interchangeably. ALL Religions vary and are a framework or model and metaphor comprising of a selective set of principles with a corresponding set of rules with no doubt questionable truths. They are commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or Divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions and rituals associated with such belief steeped in history, demography, culture and traditions. They can be viewed on parallel to faith, myths, other traditions and ancient symbolisms and can be very positive indeed as alternative paths to the same ultimate transcendental finality. Religions can be beautiful things, but their beauty can only be truly appreciated when they are seen as human creations - as works of art.

As an art form of interpretation and expression, they can be the most powerful forces for the transformation of both individual human beings and of entire communities. However, we should be aware of the difference in the way in which these art forms interpret the Divine and have manifested themselves in human communities. Indeed, I am forced to conclude that there is nothing that distinguishes societies more than the Religion that they hold about the Divine. All forms of worship make a profound difference to society depending on what Religion it chooses to go with. Spirituality however, is delving deep into the inner domain of self and seeking inner truth through activities which renew, lift up, comfort, heal and inspire both ourselves and those with whom we interact. There is no absolute truth, as humans we can only know appearances of the truth, not truth itself and it would be timely, helpful and correct if we all came to this determination.

Without Spirituality, Religion cannot survive. However, Spirituality can survive without Religion.
I believe the truth to be within all of us, witnessing to the fact that we are not separate from God or Spirit. Simply, look within yourself and know that you and God / Spirit are one, not separate. Religion always seems to see God as separate by placing God outside of mankind. Religion is most easily identified when it brings fear, guilt and condemnation in the name of God. What most today call "religion" was never Spirit`s message. God is within your heart. God is not a book, nor is God found within a building. God is within patiently awaiting for you to listen in the deepest recesses of your heart.

To define tolerance as the right to demand that anything you find personally offensive be banished from sight is the worst kind of intolerance. So if we are all going to be intolerant then, can we ban the hijab please in our places of government, our lawmakers and our public and educational institutions or at the very least reason a compromise then, to allow for others beliefs and understanding like you mentioned and asked for Mahbubur?? No, I don`t think that will happen.

Anyway, you may be interested to know that no one invented the piggy bank. The piggy banks' origin owes more to the history of language, than to an individual inventor. In old english (around the 15th century) there was a word "pygg" which referred to a type of orange clay. People made all kinds of useful objects out of clay, including dishes and jars to hold spare change. Around the 18th century, the word "pygg" now sounded the same as the word for the animal "pig". An unknown person(s) thought to shape a  "pygg" jar, to look just like a real "pig". Perhaps an order came in for a "pygg" jar and the potter misunderstood.

The pig has always been a symbol of good luck and prosperity in Britain and Ireland. Many traces of this ancient symbolism are still alive in our time. Also in some German popular expressions the word "pig" is synonymous with "good luck" (Schwein haben). In Hungary the highest card (ace) in card games is called "pig" (diszno). Not too long ago it was fashionable for men to wear little figures of pigs as good luck charms on their watch chains. More recently charm bracelets for teen-agers contained dangling pigs. Savings boxes for children in the figure of a pig (piggy banks) carry out the ancient symbolism of good luck and prosperity.

The PIG must be placed among the sacred animals of Ireland, as it was of various nations of antiquity. Was not the place known of old as Mucinis, or Hog Island? Did not Giraldus Cambrensis say in the twelfth century that he had never seen so many swine as in Ireland? And who would dispute the honour given still to "the gentleman who pays the rent"?

My own ancestors, the Druids were rather fond of pigs, since these had a liking for acorns, the produce of the saintly oak. Yet they, as priests, were the Swine of Mon, and Swine of the Sacred Cord. When the Milesians sought for Ireland in their voyage, the Tuatha de Danann (the people of the Goddess Danu, a people who inhabited Ireland in times long past), by magic, caused a fog to rise so as to make the land assume the appearance of a large pig; whence it got the appellation of Inis na Muici, or Isle of Pig, or Muc Inis, Hog Island.

Also the Boar was sacred to Diana, who sent forth the destroying Calydonian boar to ravage the country, but which was slain by Theseus. The Hindu divine mother Varahi was the Earth Sow. The third Avatar of Vishnu, Varaha, had a boar's head. A Cyprus gem bears the image of a flying boar, believed to represent Adonis, who was killed by a boar. Sacrifices of black pigs were made to Mars Sylvanus. The sow was sacred to Isis, and sacrificed to Osiris. It was sacred to Demeter or Ceres, as representing the corn spirit. The European corn spirit had the appearance of a pig as did the Celtic Cerridwen or "Old White Sow." Pork was eaten in otherworldly places by visitors and by the gods. The infant, Zeus, was nursed by a pig. In Tibet, the "Diamond" or "Adamantine Sow" was revered as Vajtavarahi, the Queen of Heaven.

In Ancient Egypt, the sky-goddess, Nut, was depicted as a sow suckling or swallowing her piglets which are the sun and the stars. According to their beliefs, Nut would swallow the stars every morning and vomit them into the sky every evening. She would also swallow her piglet, the sun, every evening and spit him out in the morning. In this way, the sun and the stars were reborn each day before beginning their journeys across the sky. In honour of Nut, Ancient Egyptians wore pig amulets. In Egypt, during later periods, the boar personated Typhon. In the picture of the Last Judgement, to be seen on the famous sarcophagus at the Sloane Museum of Lincoln's Inn Fields here in London, the condemned soul is observed transformed into a pig. One of the Phœnician gods is beheld holding one by the tail.

The boar is also a symbol of Christ because of His strength and fearless passion for the children of God. It is the symbol of the courageous Christian engaged in spiritual campaigning. St. Paulinus compared the convert to a tamed boar.
The boar is an attribute of St. Columban and St. Aemilian.

And in the UK you can still buy farm animal stamps, one of which is a pig. I am not sure which breed though, I'm afraid unlike my ancestors, I must be pig ignorant or could it be someone else that is?!!!

Let us keep our traditions (they belong to us) and let us stand up for our heritage also. These traditions belong to antiquity as well and therefore belong to all of us. Let us continue to keep our tolerances too of course in the UK and hope that others might learn from us including you Mahbubur with respect - and to know that it is not OK to trample over other people`s liberties!
Dudley Council are you listenting too?
Religion should be a private freedom outside the public sphere.

The main reason I have responded to this situation at Dudley Council is NOT to publically speak or broadcast or use words which I consider to be either abusive, threatening or insulting toward Islam as a Religion even though I do not adhere to the Islamic belief and I hope my writing is not considered likely to, nor is it intended to, stir up religious hatred of that community in general. It is about those of us who value reason, and are becoming alarmed about the increasingly extreme religious influence in our government, our lawmakers, and our public institutions - and in our education system here in the UK which has been highlighted by the outrageous situation at Dudley Council. Of course it is written in support of our pigs too and the affirmative beliefs of other people which are just as important and considerable.
Many people, while standing up for freedom of religion, and freedom not to believe, feel that the proper place for religion is in a place of worship or at home. They see the danger of religion becoming too politically ambitious. We should all be moving more ideally towards and relying upon the universal values of a secular government and public sphere, more soul and humanism in our personal lives and listening in the deepest recesses of our hearts.

Religious influence in our country and Government has not been higher in living memory. Spirituality is something positive, while religion can be a system that can be divisive. The rise of fundamentalist religion of ALL shades has the potential to seriously erode hard-won freedoms in the UK and Ireland.

Individually, we can only look on with mounting outrage and fear with our descent into dhimmitude. Is this 'surrender of our culture` to avoid offense of others a truly one-way street? With us ALL working together spiritually rather than religiously - we can make a positive difference for everyone!

I say, let them huff and puff and try to blow the house down! If other people don`t like our traditions, well that`s just too bad isn`t it?? And so say all of us!

Tony Blair (where are you?) - sort this out before someone wants to ban the Nation`s Flag and Christmas / Yule and indeed Santa Claus and succeeds!

First they banned pigs, but I was not a pig - so I said nothing.
Then they banned Santa Claus, but I was not really into Christmas - so I did nothing.
Then came the ban on the Union Jack, but I was not very patriotic.
And then they banned the athiests, but I was a believer - so I did little.
Then when they banned me, there was no one left who could stand up for me.

Written by Rev. Dr. Michael G Millett

WE AND OUR PIGS HAVE BEEN OFFENDED! SAVE OUR PIGS NOW!!! BRING BACK THE DUDLEY PIGS!