Where do you go to god? asked the little piglet

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Where do you go to god? asked the little piglet (also for short: piglet book) is a religion-critical children's book by Michael Schmidt-Salomon , illustrated by Helge Nyncke . The book was funded by the Giordano Bruno Foundation and was published by Alibri Verlag in October 2007 . In December 2007, the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth submitted an application to the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People to index the children's book as a text which is harmful to young people. This was rejected on March 6, 2008.

A translation into Esperanto was also published by Alibri Verlag in 2011 . The text translation into English arranged by Fiona Lorenz was published on the book's website.

content

The 40-page book tells the story of a piglet and a hedgehog who one day find a poster on their house with the inscription: “If you don't know God, you are missing something!” Then both go in search of God and ask clergymen of the three largest book religions , Christianity , Islam and the Jewish religion . You meet a rabbi who tells of a punishing God. Piglets and hedgehogs can hardly believe the story of the Flood and are shocked by the suffering caused by the punishing God. When asked why God did this, the rabbi replied that he wanted to punish people because they believed in other gods. When Piglet asked how the rabbi knew that his God was not just an imagination, if people could also imagine other gods, the rabbi angrily throws hedgehogs and piglets out of the synagogue . They then go to a church where they meet a bishop . He tells them about the sacrificial death of Jesus and that his blood should wash people clean. Hedgehogs and piglets cannot quite understand why one could clean oneself with blood. When the piglet suddenly discovered a few "cookies" in the church and stuck them in his mouth, the bishop angrily explained to him that this was the body of Christ . Since the news makes both of them sick and they get the impression that they are dealing with cannibals, they flee the church. In the third house, a mosque , they meet a mufti . He tells them that they could get to know God if they became Muslims. However, when the piglet found out that it would have to wash itself five times a day for this, he remarked that God must be obsessed with washing. The hedgehog emphasizes that under no circumstances will he pray five times a day because he has better things to do. The Mufti then tells the two of the hell that anyone goes to who does not obey the rules given by God to Muhammad . When the piglet asks how the mufti knew whether Mohammed had all this up for fun, the mufti throws them both out of the mosque.
Finally, the bishop, the rabbi and the mufti meet and want to grab each other's piglet and hedgehog, during which they engage in religious arguments, for example whose hell is hotter. Piglets and hedgehogs finally find out that God apparently only wants to scare and that they weren't afraid of their search for God and that it didn't bother them any further. As a result, they change the poster on their house so that it can now be read: “If you know God, you are missing something.” - “Namely up here,” as Ferkel notes. Then they build small paper planes from the poster and let them fly.

Controversy and reactions

Index application in Germany

In December 2007, the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth applied for the children's book to be indexed as a font that is harmful to minors. In the book, the three world religions would be made contemptuous and ridiculed. In the application it is stated that the text and illustration of the book show “therefore anti-Semitic tendencies”. The book is therefore suitable for “socially and ethically disorienting children and young people”. It was highlighted that media that generate hostile attitudes towards nationalities, religions or certain groups encourage racial hatred. The application was decided on March 6, 2008.

The application quotes the following passage:

“One day,” said the Rabbi, “the Lord God got so angry with the people that he decided to destroy all life on earth.” “All life?” Asked the piglet, startled. “All human babies, all grandmas and all animals? Also the piglets, the hedgehogs, the butterflies and the little guinea pigs? ”“ Yes, all life, ”answered the rabbi.

Scattered objects such as baby pacifiers make it clear that small children perished in the Flood. The application describes that the rabbi is depicted in the pictorial representation with "derailed facial features and the stereotypical characteristics of a strictly orthodox Jew in a negative way".

From this passage of text emerges a representation of the “Jewish religion as particularly frightening and cruel”. An illustration that shows how the rabbi "puts a scroll on the mouth of a representative of the Christian faith and threatens to suffocate him", as well as the images of the Flood action depict "the Jewish religion as particularly inhuman, cruel and pitiless". The representation would suggest that Judaism would destroy other religions and enforce its beliefs with violence.

In their defense, the authors were able to refute the anti-Semitism allegation. The pro-Israel journalist of Jewish descent Henryk Broder also rejected the charge (see below). The Twelve Committee of the Federal Inspectorate came to the conclusion that the piglet book was not anti-Semitic because it attacks all religions equally. Whether the book hurts the religious feelings of the believers is not decisive for the test center, since it is only concerned with the fact of endangering young people. Due to the media attention and the threat of indexing, the sales of the children's book rose sharply for a short time as a result of the application, so that it reached 10th place in the bestseller list for picture books of the buchreport in June 2008. Before the fourth edition appeared, the book had sold over 12,000 times.

Media reactions

With the federal ministry's application for indexing, the children's book became the subject of extensive media coverage, which mainly related to this application. The book and the application for indexing also met with journalistic feedback outside of Germany. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on the incident. In an English newspaper the book was referred to as the "children's edition of Richard Dawkins ' Der Gotteswahn ".

In the reports of the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Welt , which also went into the contents of the book , the book was rejected for aesthetic and content-related reasons. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung , the book was described as a "fundamentalist (e)" reaction against worldwide religious fundamentalism , whose "indexing procedure by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs is to be welcomed for aesthetic reasons". It was further stated that the rabbi was reminiscent of "caricatures from the 1930s" and that the sequence on Islam was "just as infamous as the pictures of the rabbi of hatred". According to the world , the book is “far too bad for censorship”, it contains “elementary errors” in the representation of Judaism. The time finds the excitement about the book exaggerated: It is not an "anti-Semitic inflammatory pamphlet (...), but merely (a) humorless polemic with appealing illustrations and a simple ideological background". Schmidt-Salomon is informed that he shows himself to be a “self-righteous and one-dimensional hater of religion” who now also uses children's books “ to propagate his naive and completely dialectic-free version of the Enlightenment”. The weekly newspaper considers an index to be "excessive". The Neue Zürcher Zeitung found the book to be "flat", but considered indexing to be "silly" and stupid.

Reactions from the authors

“This accusation of anti-Semitism is nothing more than a flimsy pretext to ban criticism of religion from the nursery,” replied author Schmidt-Salomon. Apparently the ministry did not know “that the vast majority of Jews think progressively , if not secularly, and distance themselves from those ultra-orthodox muddleheads who think the Old Testament or the Torah literally with a sharpness that would terrify the Family Ministry to have to take ”. Only these ultra-orthodox are represented in his book. If his rendering of the Flood story arouses offense, one must "first of all put the Bible on the index of writings harmful to young people," Schmidt-Salomon said. Illustrator Helge Nyncke said that the "very conscious creative equal treatment of all three religious representatives was deliberately suppressed and turned into anti-Jewish propaganda ". The fact that one interprets the rabbi's intention to murder in the image of the wrangling of the religious representatives is a projection of one's own prejudiced point of view. In a response to the criticism, Nyncke defended his way of working on the book's website: he had “taken great care” and “careful not to use any stereotypical negative clichés” when depicting the rabbi. In their defense against the application for indexing, the authors explain and justify every single figure and every single part of the text in great detail.

Schmidt-Salomon countered the allegation of fundamentalism with the clarification that the book even argues “more agnostically than atheistic”. Piglets and hedgehogs are also "perfect examples of tolerance". Although they were “pretty much worn out by the worshipers”, they “made no move to attack the religions or even to ban them”. Schmidt-Salomon points out that tolerance literally only means “bearing” the other and in this respect differs from “respect”. In response to the criticism of the content by the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Welt, Schmidt-Salomon replied that the authors of the article had misunderstood the individual aspects of the book. For example, the depicted Jewish house of God is not a synagogue , but the temple in Jerusalem.

In order to prevent the children's book from being indexed, Alibri-Verlag started the campaign “Save the little piglet!” Together with the author. The alibri publisher Gunnar Schedel announced that one would complain against a possible indexing on the part of the federal inspection agency. After the rejection of the application, Helge Nyncke spoke of a “victory of common sense over religious blinkered thinking”.

Reactions from the secular associations

A group of 22 secular associations and organizations from Germany, Austria and Switzerland published a joint statement on February 6, 2008 against the application for indexing. In it they called for "freedom of opinion for critics of religion", the rejection of the application by the Federal Examination Office and the Ministry of Family "a public withdrawal of the unjustified and reputational accusations contained therein against those responsible for the children's book." The signatories rated the index application of the Ministry of Family as a " Attempt at ideological censorship ”. The signatories of the joint declaration included, among others, the Federation for Freedom of the Mind in Bavaria , the German Freethinkers Association , the Freethinkers Association of Austria , the International Federation of Non-Denominational and Atheists and the Central Council of Ex-Muslims .

Peter Adloff from the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD) thinks that the book does not contribute to “that children can clarify and develop their worldview, or that they learn to orientate themselves in a pluralistic world. (…) To draw the reverse conclusion from this, that it harms them, so that the state has to intervene, ”he thought, however, to be inappropriate. For the association, which also organizes humanistic life studies in Berlin , it is important "not to be confused with the position of the anti-religion agitator". While Schmidt-Salomon " seems to favor the theories of priesthood deception of the 18th century", the HVD's life science lessons are based "on Feuerbach and psychoanalytic religious analysis in order to promote an education to come of age."

The president of the umbrella organization Free Weltanschauungsgemeinschaften eV (DFW), Volker Mueller, took a stand against the indexing application, but stated: “In contrast to some current claims, general freedom of expression and the freedom of art are not curtailed by this indexing application. If the book had been banned or censored without constitutional reasons, the umbrella organization Free Weltanschauungsgemeinschaften eV (DFW) would certainly be on the barricade immediately to help defend democratic rights. "

Reactions from religious communities

Representatives of the three religions criticized in the book commented on the procedure. The Central Council of Jews in Germany did not consider the book to be anti-Semitic, as it "equally slandered all three major monotheistic religions." Secretary General Stephan Kramer nevertheless considered the book to be "dangerous anti- religion incitement" and called for indexing. He called the book "disgusting, dangerous and militantly atheistic". With the representation of naked religious representatives, the book is also "... tasteless". The image of naked people presented there could even frighten growing children. The state rabbi of Schleswig-Holstein, Walter Rothschild , spoke of a “hate book”, but spoke out against indexing. The cultural representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany claimed that the book contained Stürmer- like caricatures.

The Protestant theologian Eberhard Jüngel calls his short commentary on the book “A thanks to atheistic polemics”. Jüngel emphasizes the final sentence of the book: “And the moral of the story: If you don't know God, you don't need him.” He states: “Well roared, young pig! Because how should you 'need' someone or even love someone if you don't know them at all? (...) What can the Christian churches learn from this kind of atheism? Answer: what you should always know. Namely that it is important to make God known. Just as he made himself known in the person of Jesus Christ: as a God who encounters godless people in a deeply human way. If current atheism challenges us Christians to make this God known, one could be downright grateful that there are still atheistic polemics. "

Shortly after its publication, the Catholic diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart had already applied for a criminal investigation because, according to the application, the book wanted to declare the belief to be nonsensical. The responsible public prosecutor in Aschaffenburg saw no criminal content. However, Chief Public Prosecutor Ernst Wich-Knot described the piglet book as “a perfidious work in the guise of a religious children's book.” The Tübingen religious educator Albert Biesinger also claimed similarities to the striker. He said that the book "constitutes an offense" because it describes Christians as "cannibals." The Central Council of Muslims in Germany requested indexing.

The Regensburg Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller described Schmidt-Salomon in a sermon on May 25, 2008 as a “spiritual gunman who classifies believers as pigs and advocates child murder”. After the diocese was asked to sign a cease and desist declaration, the sermon available online was replaced with a defused version. In addition, however, the diocese relied on the freedom of expression of the preacher. Thereupon Schmidt-Salomon filed a lawsuit against the bishop in order to defend himself against what he believed to be offensive and untruthful allegations. The Regensburg Administrative Court saw no risk of repetition by the Regensburg bishop and dismissed the lawsuit. In the appeal instance, however, the Bavarian Administrative Court decided in favor of Schmidt-Salomon. The court found that the "allegations of the bishop were in contradiction to Schmidt-Salomon's actual publications and were likely to damage his reputation in the public." The bishop had not fulfilled his "duty of care, objectivity and truthfulness" and the Writer in his "personal rights violated". The pre-judicial legal fees incurred were imposed on Müller.

Political voices

The parliamentary group of the party Alliance 90 / The Greens held at the request of Brights despite sharp criticism of the book itself of expression and artistic freedom for the greater good and did not consider the proposed indexing for appropriate and necessary.

The Bundestag member Ulla Jelpke ( Die Linke ) found that the book could "make a contribution to a (...) humanistic upbringing". She considered the indexing project “an intolerable relapse into the Middle Ages”, which is why she “signed the appeal against this attack on freedom of expression”.

After the rejection of the indexing application, the domestic political spokesman for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group , Hans-Peter Uhl , said that although the book could formally invoke the freedoms of the Basic Law, it contradicted “the spirit of the constitutional order”, the right of believers to Include respect. His press release further states: “Intentional misunderstanding, shortening and mockery of religious beliefs is a disgrace for an enlightened pluralistic society. Children's books with this content have an adverse effect on education. "

More reactions

Micha Brumlik from the University of Frankfurt and former chairman of the working group Jews and Christians at the German Evangelical Church Congress said the application was justified. His Frankfurt colleague Hans-Heino Ewers , head of the “Institute for Youth Book Research”, considers the piglet book to be “stupid criticism of religion” that a liberal society has to accept, and the portrayal of the rabbi as “historically tasteless”, but he considers the application for indexing to be “ a break-in, an undermining of liberal thinking. "

Henryk M. Broder called the application for indexing "ridiculous" in an interview with Deutschlandradio . The piglet book is not anti-Semitic because it is not specifically directed against Jews. He emphasized that it was a basic right to be allowed to make fun of religions.

The PEN center of German-speaking authors abroad discussed the indexing application: The former GDR civil rights activist Lutz Rathenow praised: “A nice book idea, a coherent a-religious children's story”, but was bothered by the two “closing pages, which had such a primitive atheism -Imagination "spread that" one could almost be ashamed again ". The anti-Semitism accusation, however, is a "pretext for the displeasure in the atheism of the band". The journalist and theologian Ulrich W. Sahm sees “undoubtedly a malicious, perhaps even anti-Semitic depiction”, which is also stupid and flawed. For this representation, Sahm was reprimanded by the German Press Council in July 2008 for defamatory statements . The conservative author Freya Klier called the book “demagogic and intolerant of those who think differently”. Fred Viebahn spoke of an attempt at censorship and called for a critical press release from the center. Even Peter Finkelgruen said that it "be the task of an association of authors (should) speak out against indexing". Gabrielle Alioth replied that this would "undeservedly give the book even more attention".

The book

  • Michael Schmidt-Salomon, Helge Nyncke: Where are you going to God, please? Asked the little piglet. , Alibri Verlag, Aschaffenburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86569-030-2

literature

  • Michael Schmidt-Salomon / Helge Nyncke / Gunnar Schedel: The rescue of the little piglet. Why children can laugh at religion too. Alibri Verlag, Aschaffenburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-86569-222-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ hpd press service: application for indexing rejected. Humanistic press service, March 6, 2008. Accessed May 4, 2015
  2. ↑ Ferkelbuch.de: Ferkelbuch in English ( Memento from November 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 1, 2012
  3. ↑ a b indexing application. (PDF; 829 kB) Accessed May 4, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b Information from the BPjM ( Memento from May 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ a b ferkelbuch.de ( Memento from May 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ book report ( Memento from June 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), edition 19/2008 for the month of June 2008.
  7. ^ A b Martin Bauer: Application for indexing rejected. (No longer available online.) In: HPD online. March 6, 2008, archived from the original on March 9, 2008 ; Retrieved March 6, 2008 .
  8. ^ Heide Oestreich: Accusation of anti-Semitism. Children's book should be indexed. In: the daily newspaper . January 29, 2008, accessed January 31, 2008 .
  9. ↑ dpa: Censorship: Ministry wants to ban children's books. In: The time. January 29, 2008, accessed January 31, 2008 .
  10. ↑ Children's books critical of religion are intended to endanger young people. In: The press . January 29, 2008, accessed January 31, 2008 .
  11. ↑ a b Alan Posener : How anti-Semitic can a children's book be? In: The world. January 30, 2008, accessed January 31, 2008 .
  12. ↑ a b Alex Rühle: Indexing proceedings against children's books: The ugly Rabbi. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. January 31, 2008, accessed January 31, 2008 .
  13. ↑ Harry de Quetteville: "Anti-Semitic" children's book faces ban . In: The Telegraph . 2008 ( co.uk ).
  14. ↑ Jan Free: Godless animals. In: The time. February 4, 2008, accessed February 4, 2008 .
  15. ↑ Piglets on the index. German Family Ministry wants to ban anti-religious children's books. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. February 2, 2008, accessed February 6, 2008 .
  16. ↑ a b c Big trouble for a little piglet. (No longer available online.) Humanist Press Service, January 29, 2008, archived from the original on February 1, 2008 ; Retrieved February 1, 2008 .
  17. ↑ Helge Nyncke: Declaration on the charge of anti-Semitism. (No longer available online.) In: Humanistischer Pressedienst. February 8, 2008, archived from the original on February 11, 2008 ; Retrieved February 8, 2008 .
  18. ↑ Martin Bauer: Interview with the author Michael Schmidt-Salomon about the reactions to the "little piglet". (No longer available online.) In: Humanistischer Pressedienst. February 1, 2008, archived from the original on February 7, 2008 ; Retrieved February 2, 2008 .
  19. ↑ “Save the little piglet!” (No longer available online.) Humanist Press Service, January 30, 2008, archived from the original on February 3, 2008 ; Retrieved February 4, 2008 .
  20. ↑ Freedom of opinion also for critics of religion. (No longer available online.) Humanist Press Service, February 6, 2008, archived from the original on February 9, 2008 ; Retrieved February 6, 2008 .
  21. ↑ Peter Adloff, Humanistic Association of Germany: Statement on “Where is it going to God, please? asked the little pig “and to the application for indexing. (No longer available online.) February 7, 2008, archived from the original on February 10, 2008 ; Retrieved February 8, 2008 .
  22. ↑ Questionable indexing application for a children's book. (No longer available online.) Humanist Press Service, February 12, 2008, archived from the original ; Retrieved February 12, 2008 .
  23. ^ A b Heide Oestreich: Accusation of anti-Semitism. Children's book should be indexed. In: the daily newspaper . February 1, 2008, accessed February 1, 2008 .
  24. ↑ Little piglet causes a lot of trouble , deutschlandradiokultur.de
  25. ↑ ferkelbuch.de ( Memento from July 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  26. ^ Statement by the Secretary General of the Central Council of Jews in Germany on the children's book "Where please go to God". In: Press release on [Zentralratdjuden.de]. Central Council of Jews in Germany , January 30, 2008, accessed February 8, 2008 .
  27. ↑ Eberhard Jüngel: Piglet. Thanks to atheistic polemics, in zeitzeichen. Evangelical Commentaries on Religion and Society, Volume 9, May 2008, page 51
  28. ^ Children's book: Diocese files criminal charges. In: domradio . Catholic News Agency , February 7, 2008, accessed February 8, 2008 .
  29. ↑ Just a “perfidious work”. DerWesten.de, February 15, 2008, accessed on July 1, 2015 .
  30. ↑ Ulrike Nowak: “Hetze against Jews”. Theologian Biesinger considers piglet children's book to be dangerous. In: domradio . February 7, 2008, accessed February 8, 2008 .
  31. ^ Regensburg Week: Sermon against Piglet book soon in court?
  32. ↑ News from the Giordano Bruno Foundation : Schmidt-Salomon on Bishop Müller (Regensburg): “Even bishops should stick to the truth!” ( Memento from August 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  33. ↑ kath.net : "Where God is denied, human dignity falls"
  34. ↑ Mittelbayerische.de: Bishop Müller is under revision , accessed on March 5, 2011.
  35. ↑ Brights Hamburg: “Statement of the Bundestag faction of Alliance 90 / the Greens”. (No longer available online.) March 6, 2008, formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 24, 2008 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.brights-hamburg.de  
  36. ↑ Ulla Jelpke: Opinion on the piglet book. In: parliamentwatch.de. February 19, 2008. Retrieved February 19, 2008 .
  37. ↑ Hans-Peter Uhl: Religious hostility is not constitutional. In: press release. March 6, 2008, accessed March 9, 2008 .
  38. ↑ Excerpt from the interview in the review overview of Alibri-Verlag (PDF, 88 KB)
  39. ↑ For discussion: The index application against the religion-critical children's book "Where, please, is it going to God?" Asked the little piglet "by Michael Schmidt-Salomon and Helge Nyncke. (No longer available online.) PEN center for German-speaking authors abroad , formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 13, 2008 (no mementos in web archives).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / exilpen.de  
  40. ↑ Press Council expresses disapproval , Humanistic Press Service, July 24, 2008