"We live in a multicultural society and the traditions and symbols of one community should not be obliterated just to accommodate another," Mr Mahmoud said. "I doubt many Muslims would be seriously offended by piggy banks."
You'd think so. That could also be the (post-war) English tendency towards self-deprecation and apology for one's existence.
Shouldn't 'proper' Muslims be using Islamic banks that don't commit usury?
A lot of British high-street banks offer Islamic mortgages and such, which use some semantic sleight-of-hand to avoid the concept of interest (I think the bank buys the house and sells it back to the customer in instalments or something).
They even have Islamic Investment funds, where the returns are "purified" according to shariah law... gains from vice stocks are given to charity.
So they invest in vice stocks in the first place rather than avoiding them? Or is avoiding un-Islamic investments more difficult than avoiding the sorts of things ethical investment funds avoid (arms manufacturers, sweatshop exploiters and such)?
Oh they do invest in vice stocks, but any dividends/capital gains from them will be handed over to charity... makes more sense than traditional ethical investing really, since that will only leave the remaining vice investors with a greater share of the vice company dividends.
Media Watch revealed this to be a beat up last night - apparently a bank branch removed piggy banks from display...because the promotional campaign had ended.
Surely anyone hardcore enough to be offended by a piggy bank isn't going to be using a western bank in the first place?