Winnie the Pooh censored in the Middle East

Over on Qatar Living, there's an interesting article about a book the author bought. The book is "My Very First Encyclopedia with Winnie the Pooh and friends" and it seems that there's something not quite right about it. Take a look at the picture above and see if you can work out what's wrong.

That's right. Piglet has been blanked out using a black marker pen - And the book is like that on every page. All 192 pages of it.

The article suggests some reasons why this may have happened, and the author suspects that the book arrived in Doha via Saudi Arabia, where it may have been censored. Muslims, as in Judaism, are forbidden to eat pork as pigs are believed to be unclean. That doesn't say, though, that it's forbidden to draw cartoon pigs for children. Now, I have absolutely no intention of starting a religious argument here, but I do think that it's going a little too far when they're censoring children's characters that are known the world over from books. Especially when, as the article says, you can buy a Winnie the Pooh DVD from the same shop and see Piglet playing with his friends perfectly clearly.

Links:
- Disney's Piglet banned in Middle East - Qatar Living
- My Very First Encylopedia with Winnie the Pooh and Friends: Nature - Amazon.com
- Winnie the Pooh official website