Was this an offensive joke?

[anotheoldgit]

A Director of Barclaycard was force to resign from his job for making the following statement, it was deemed as offensive to Muslims.

Mr Howells said: "The results were like Muslims - some were good, some were Shi'ite".

Was this racist, or just another example of pandering to Muslim sensibilities?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles /news/news.html?in_article_id=505320&in_page_i d=1770

[Theland]

It's not just the muslims we need to fear for kicking up a ruckus whenever the opportunity presents itself, but the pc brigade who claim to speak on our behalf. Mind you, how many muslims have infiltrated the higher echelons of our society, and are starting to turn things around for themselves? how long before we reach critical mass?

[R1Man]

The guy's a genius, put him on the stage!

[Lonnie]

It just may have been offensive to a small minority, but it was so minor, it made me wonder if someone had it in for him.
Also, as Theland says, its likely the PC brigade had a hand in it.

Mccarthyism with a vengence.

[Booldawg]

Haha, bit of a major gaffe, makes the Duke of Edinburgh sound tactful!

[Theland]

It is an insult to us, who are NOT racist, to bludgeon a bit of typically British lavatorial humour with po faced bureaucratic clap trap that defies common sense.

[paulos66]

Must remember to shed a tear next time the barclycard statement arrives (nowt new there then)

[legend758duo]

If it was about females there wouldve been a bigger uproar.


Imagine saying something like..........

Grtting ready to come here this evening my wife asked me if she her bum looked big in her dress.i said of course it does youve got a big bum you silly b!tch.


Oh how theyd laugh as they grabbed him by the testicles.
So in short if you make a joke you may suffer the consequences,unless youre actually a comedian.

[MrsT]

It's probably some numpty in the diversity department, all big firms have them now, they're like the bl00dy gestapo. I doubt any one actually found it offensive but the deiversity mafia probably thought they would!

[tiggerblue10]

Are any Muslims brandishing machetes in the streets yet?

[Theland]

No but we've had themm dressed up as suicide bombers in Trafalgar Square, while people protesting at this affront to our democracy were arrested!!! Yes, bit by bit it's happening.

[sp1814]

legend758duo

Sorry...but that was a superb joke. I'm going to nick it and claim it as mine.

[tiggerblue10]

Sorry Theland. I was forgetting that we have moved on from machetes. Bomb bags are now the latest fashion accessory.

[sp1814]

In answer to the question posed...it's easy to establish whether a joke is racist/offensive. Really, really easy.

All you do is take the joke, and go and say it in front of the race of the person who is being made fun of.

If you haver in any way, then it's probably offensive.

[andy-hughes]

It's more likely that obvious lack of judgement that's the issue here.

A senior member of management making such dubious offensive jokes suggests a serious lack of judgement, which may well extend to other areas of his employment.

I would also guess that this is not the first time such judgement has been questioned - it may well have been the proverbial straw, and the person in question knew he had no response, morally, or in law - he certainly took the money and left without making ir a tribunal issue.

[anotheoldgit]

Using your argument SP1814, in an audience you are most likey to have people of different nationalities, different religions, different sexes,different genders etc. so therefore any joke is certain to offend someone, at sometime.

Perhaps along with everythng else they are banning in this once "Land of the Free", they should now be looking into banning, Jokes,Comedians, and Humor?

[IggyB]

well it is an offensive joke to some isn't it - and an old one at that, it would have prob raised a grin in the pub BUT if you're in an important business meeting you are meant to control your speech and behavior i.e be a professional. If he hasn't got the sense to know whats inappropriate in various situations then he probably isn't up to the job of speaking at important meetings so off he goes to pastures new... makes sense to me and i'm sure he doesn't mind getting a payoff at all.

[Drisgirl]

O -not being flippant at all here - BUT -we always called Catholics cufflinks.

OK -maybe not funny but we thought it was cos them were the days that you could make a joke and no-one took offence

[jake-the-peg]

I think refering to a group as ***** is pretty offensive.

I think I'd be pretty offended if I were on the receiving end of that and I'm pretty sure that if it were the other way around and a muslim were sacked for making a joke of that nature you and a whole pack of others (you know who you are) would be on here yelling "justice at last".

Maybe you'd like to give us an example of a joke that you think *would* be too offensive to tell in the circumstances.

Or does anything go in your book as long as it's muslims on the receiving end?

[China Doll]

There is also the line of thought that you can get away with some seriously quite offensive humour/comments (I do on a daily basis) because it is obviously a joke and you don't mean it. If it's actually your view point then obviously it ain't all that funny.... think Jim Davidson, Bernard Manning etc...

Also causing offence is subjective to who you're talking to, it's like the old saying about one mans medicine. However, what you say in a meeting in a professional capacity is probably not the same as what you might say to your mates in the pub and as Iggy said, most of us make a distinction.

I'd also like to add that if you replace the word muslim with men then I find it actually makes me smile more.

[Oneeyedvic]

The 'proper' joke which is far better is:

The weather in Great Yarmouth is like the Islam religion - it is either Sunni or Shi'ite.