Brian Ross wrote on Sep 15^th, 2014 at 6:35pm:



Yes.  Always.

Annie,
Quote:



Shock  horror.   

Although muslims dont eat pork its doesnt make a place of worship impure.

There's a silly myth going around that islamophobes love - that jihadists allegedly believe that if they are shot and killed with a bullet laced in pig fat, they will go to hell. I believe it was actually done, or at least threatened by British colonialists trying to quash a muslim revolt in India in the 19th century.

There's a silly myth going around that islamophobes love - that jihadists allegedly believe that if they are shot and killed with a bullet laced in pig fat, they will go to hell. I believe it was actually done, or at least threatened by British colonialists trying to quash a muslim revolt in India in the 19th century.

Tallow and lard-greased cartridges

The final spark was provided by the ammunition for the new Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle.[20] These rifles, which fired Minié balls, had a tighter fit than the earlier muskets, and used paper cartridges that came pre-greased. To load the rifle, sepoys had to bite the cartridge open to release the powder.[21] The grease used on these cartridges included tallow derived from beef; which would be offensive to Hindus,[22] or lard derived from pork; which would be offensive to Muslims. At least one Company official pointed out the difficulties this may cause: "unless it be proven that the grease employed in these cartridges is not of a nature to offend or interfere with the prejudices of caste, it will be expedient not to issue them for test to Native corps".[23] However, in August 1856, greased cartridge production was initiated at Fort William, Calcutta, following a British design. The grease used included tallow supplied by the Indian firm of Gangadarh Banerji & Co.[24] By January, the rumours were abroad that the Enfield cartridges were greased with animal fat. Company officers became aware of the rumours through reports of an altercation between a high-caste sepoy and a low-caste labourer at Dum Dum.[25] The labourer had taunted the sepoy that by biting the cartridge, he had himself lost caste, although at this time such cartridges had been issued only at Meerut and not at Dum Dum.[26] There had been rumours that the British sought to destroy the religions of the Indian people, and forcing the native soldiers to break their sacred code would have certainly added to this rumour, as it apparently did. The Company was quick to reverse the effects of this policy in hopes that the Indians would be quelled.[27][28]

On 27 January, Colonel Richard Birch, the Military Secretary, ordered that all cartridges issued from depots were to be free from grease, and that sepoys could grease them themselves using whatever mixture "they may prefer".[29] A modification was also made to the drill for loading so that the cartridge was torn with the hands and not bitten. This however, merely caused many sepoys to be convinced that the rumours were true and that their fears were justified. Additional rumours started that the paper in the new cartridges, which was glazed and stiffer than the previously used paper, was impregnated with grease.[30] In February, a court of inquiry was held at Barrackpore to get to the bottom of these rumours: native soldiers called as witnesses complained of the paper "being stiff and like cloth in the mode of tearing", said that when the paper was burned it smelled of grease, and announced that the suspicion that the paper itself contained grease could not be removed from their minds.[31]