Swimming in sensitivities

You just can't advertise certain things if your billboard is in a "Muslim area", it seems. It's haram, plain and simple.

There's yet another case of moaning Muslims who think British ways should change to accommodate their religious sensitivities, this time in Sparkbrook, Birmingham, where some swimwear is being advertised.

As with most adverts for swimwear, bodies wearing, er, well, swimwear are used as models. After all, you wouldn't use a pair of feet or a left testicle to advertise toothpaste (unless you were a pretty innovative designer/copywriter). So the Matalan ad features people in swimwear. And the picture has been vandalised, with thick white paint daubed on it to conceal flesh.

A councillor called Talib Hussain (a Muslim, we assume) is bleating that it's not right to allow such ads, and the council should stop it, because it's close to mosques. He says that, while he doesn't condone vandalism, this type of thing does not "bring the community together", but "provokes things". So not the vandals' fault, then.

Of course, once advertisers or councils cave in to such religious demands, where will it end? No more pictures of pigs' heads (or pigs' heads themselves) in butchers' shops, perhaps? We've already seen what a few cartoons can do, not to mention a film that dares to question some of Islam's more hideous scriptures.

At least the Advertising Standards Authority has not jumped to remove the ad, but it may be only a matter of time. Although it has only "responsive" powers, it says, "If we receive complaints we will consider if an advert should be removed."