Egypt kills every single pig to prevent swine flu...

CAIRO – Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been reported here yet, the Health Ministry said. Full story here.

Poor bloody pigs!

That being said, we should never be surprised at what our middle eastern brethren will do when given the opportunity to manipulate a world health crisis for political purposes.

After all, Israel has already rejected the name 'Swine Flu' because it's not kosher (they prefer the less pig-specific moniker 'Mexican Flu') Why shouldn't anybody else jump on the bandwagon?

Muslims don't eat pork - which they view as 'unclean' according to the Quran - yet some of the minority of Christians in Egypt do keep pigs so they can grow their own delicious bacon and ham.

This causes much consternation amongst the more devout followers of Islam, as you can imagine.

So, by ordering the entirely unnecessary extermination of all pigs in the country, the Egyptian government has neatly managed to eliminate the 'infidel heresy' of pig-keeping in one fell swoop.

Naturally, the Christians who keep these pigs won't be compensated for having their livestock and livelihood exterminated.

Will this protect Egypt from the possible pandemic of 'Mexican Flu?'

Was that ever really the point of the exercise?

This isn't a criticism of Islam (or Judiasm) but more of a complaint about religion in general. Swine Flu is a real issue with potentially devastating consequences - yet in the middle east, the cradle of religious absurdity, people are more worried about semantics and pork chops than dealing with the actual issue.

Just wait until the world gets hit with 'camel flu.' Then we'll see what Egypt's really made of.

Egypt began slaughtering its roughly 300,000 pigs Wednesday even though experts said swine flu is not linked to pigs and not spread by eating pork. Angry farmers protested the government degree.

In Paris, the World Organization for Animal Health said Thursday "there is no evidence of infection in pigs, nor of humans acquiring infection directly from pigs."

Killing pigs "will not help to guard against public or animal health risks" presented by the virus and "is inappropriate," the group said in a statement. Full story here.