get resentful when they feel that minority groups are dictating what the majority can do or eat.
The Great Islington Sausage Furore reminded me of a tale from Portugal back in the time of the Inquisition when Jews were forced to convert to Christianity. The whole of Iberia has always had a pretty big love affair with pigs and it would have been quite difficult for Jews to avoid eating pork and still give the impression they were good converts. To get around this the Jews
from the remote Trás-os-Montes region of Portugal started to make sausages called Alheira, which were made of chicken and garlic instead of pork. The Jews passed-off their pork-free treat as the real thing and they were so delicious the whole country developed a taste for the smoky Alheira while everyone assumed they were still eating pork.
It seems that pork has always been a troublesome meat.
Our first entry in the Vive Charlie Draw Mohammed competition, not surprisingly, comes from an artist that wishes to remain anonymous. He/she has incorporated the Lars Vilks drawing of Mohammed depicted as a stray dog and added his own Mohammed dog. We invite you to submit your depictions of Mohammed to [email protected]. Each week we will publish our favourite, which will go into our final, from which a winner will be selected on or around the 20th of May. The winner will be invited to email us a photo and we will transform you into a cartoon character and feature you in an issue of Vive Charlie.