I have heard that when the British were trying to put down a rebellion in Pakistan, they used pig covered bullets to shoot Moslem terrorists. This was because the terrorists felt they would go to heaven if they were killed in a “holy” mission, but they would not go to heaven if pig entered their body in any sort of way.
Is this true or an Urban (Turban?) Legend?
Actually, an error.
In order to cause problems with the Islamic solders in the British ranks, the enemy started a rumor stating that the cartridges were coated with lard. Back then, the ‘cartridge’ was a paper cylinder, containing powder and shot. You bit the end off to dump it in the gun.
You can kind of see how that would cause problems with Moslems. They had to order in new cartridges and assured the Islamic soldiers that beef fat was used before they would touch the things.
(Darn! All of this uproar over pigs in some religions!)
It is from this, comes the phrase "Bite the bullet"MTS
There might of course have been more than one incident of this kind, but my WAG is that you’re both trying to recall the start of the Sepoy Mutiny (1850something) in India.
The problem wasn’t exactly solved by issuing cartridges with beef fat, as this was a major insult to the Hindu troops. The cartridge incident and the rather incompetent way the British command handled it triggered the uprising, but tensions had been rising for a while.
The Sepoy Mutiny was a big affair, with major losses on both sides and very dirty fighting. The mutineers massacred civilians on several occasions, while the British took to executing mutineers by tying (sp?) them in front of cannon muzzles.
S. Norman
There was a similar item in News of the Weird a few years back – some Israeli came up with the idea of using hollow bullets with a bit of pork inside. When fired into a Palestinian (or anyone else, for that matter), the bullet would likely break up, placing the pork inside the victim’s body. According to the article, many Muslims believe that any contact with pigs will “destroy their souls”, so the pig round would in effect kill its victim twice.
Ummm…NO. It doesn’t come from this.
3waygeek sez:
Interesting and very clever. Moslems believe that if they die in a Holy War, they are guaranteed to go to Heaven, so getting killed doesn’t necessarily frighten them. However, poking some pig into them would ruin that chance. That would scare the crap out of them.
I wonder what Moslems will think when and if it turns out that we can safely transplant pig organs into people to keep them alive. They’re working on heart transplants here now.
Note to the military: The next time we have to go to the Middle East and kick ass, and there will be a next time, first spread rumor that our bombs contain large amounts of pig fat and our bullets are greased with the gunk. Propaganda.
maybe we can borrow the goat cannon and reboar it to fire a pig out of. 
My history teacher told me that this phrase came from the fact that, during the Civil War, the medics had wounded soldiers bite down on a bullet, presumably a dud, while they were being operated on. Apparently this provided some sort of pain relief in place of anesteshia.
Its possible, though, my teacher could have been wrong about the origin of this.
That’s about what I’ve heard. Comes from before the Civil war though, and the bullet would be soft lead. This would prevent the person from grinding their teeth or biting their tongue from pain.
I don’t know if they got lead poisoning from this, and I always thought a leather strap was more frequently used.
Fairly clearly not kosher for Muslims or Jews. Of course given the possibilities of species jumping diseases in this scenario, I think this is pipe dream and bad, bad public policy.
Idiotic propaganda since (1) there are American Muslims serving in our own Armed Forces and we make a secular conflict a religious one. Bad policy and dumb. (2) I don’t think moderately educated Muslims really believe in this and I assume that any government would quickly get some religious authorities to dispel this concept. So we would just end up looking like moronic religious bigots. Leading to an even greater reaction against us.
Hmm, looks like exactely the wrong kind of idea…
I heard something similar was used for propaganda during the Gulf War, that in one of the broadcasts showing how well equipped and prepared for battle the American soldiers were they show a soldier using a bullet to stir bacon that was cooking in a pan in the background, implying that at least one of the bullets that was going to get shot at Iraqi’s had bacon grease on it.
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Collounsbury
Fairly clearly not kosher for Muslims or Jews. Of course given the possibilities of species jumping diseases in this scenario, I think this is pipe dream and bad, bad public policy.
[quote]
Pig xenografts for aortic valves have been used for the last 30 years or so. This was kosher – Jewish law can be suspended almost any case in order to save a life. Nowadays, they use plastic St. Jude’s valves.
Disease may be a problem, but it is not that likely. I guarantee the pigs will be raised in a very clean environment. These will be transgenic pigs and not the kind that you see roamin’ around the farm. Prion disease may be the only problem, and that has not been shown in pigs that I know of. And may not be a problem when not dealing with neural matter…
edwino wrote:
ISTR that the pig valves were frozen in liquid nitrogen before being transplanted – supposedly that would kill any nasties, as well as being beneficial in suppressing rejection.
Perhaps the kind discussed in this thread?
RE: PIG PARTS
I have no problem with pig transplants. The way I look at it, humans are happily poisoning the environment, spreading new and old diseases and digging up real ancient ones buried in the rain forest they keep wrecking, so chances of transgender disease would actually be minimal.
Plus, pigs are real close to humans and many transgender bugs don’t affect them. It doesn’t seem to matter anyhow. Gonorrhea came from dogs, AIDS came from monkeys, EBOLA is suspected to come from animals, so it seems that diseases are doing quite well on their own in crossing the barrier.
RE: Military propaganda. Follow it up with bullets dipped in pork fat. The amount of US Muslims in the military is minor and if they have a problem with handling pig stuff, they could be left behind.
I don’t think that coming into contact with pork is the an automatic “no heaven for you” card. An Islamic holy man can issue a (I’ve been trying to think of this word for two days now with no success) sumthinerother, which is sort od like forgiving someone in advance for a sin that they might commit. “Thou shalt not kill,” is a rule of Islam, and breaking it should keep you out of paradise. However, a sheik or something can issue one of them things to a few guys that says “It is wrong to kill, but Allah will be OK with it if you kill some Americans.” Similarly, one of them things could be issued in the case of pork covered bullets, “Blah, blah, blah, if you get shot with a pork bullet while doing battle with the great Satan, Allah will forgive you and accept you into paradise.” This would be enough to assuage the fears of your rank and file fanatic.
Also these thingees can be issued after the fact. A muslim who eats pork to keep from dying of starvation (or for some other suitably good reason) can be forgiven.
I’ve been trying to think of the word since this thread was opened, and this post would have been much more informative if I could have thought of the word in question, but that’s life.
[hijack]
What’s the name of that thing I’m thinking of? And someone please come along and explain it better than I did.
[/hijack]
BadtzMaru:
Using a bullet to stir bacon ? Sounds highly nonoptimal to me. As a matter of fact, it sounds downright stupid.
Although it could have been an extremely amusing shot if the idiot dropped the bullet in the frying pan with everybody frantically clearing the dugout before the primer cooked off, ignited the powder charge and sprayed everyone with hot bacon grease. Seriously, you don’t fuck with ammo, you might need it.
The entire “bacon grease bullet defence” is probably flawed anyway, as Lance Turbo points out: Islam is a very practical religion in most respects (it has to be, it’s used as the basis for legislation) and exceptions can be granted in most cases.
What would happen is that the counterpropaganda would paint the US troops as being barbaric heathens, hating muslims so much that they want not only to kill you in battle, but to destroy your soul as well. Would you surrender to people like that ?
S. Norman
Please feel free to insert the word fatwa anywhere where I say “the frickin’ word I can’t think of” in my above post. I remembered that Khomeni issued one that said, “It’s wrong to kill, but it’s OK to kill Salman Rushdie.” A quick (or not so quick*) net search for Salman Rushdie lead me to the answer.
*Do you know how many ways there are to spell Salman Rushdie? Just one. Now that’s annoying.
The most effective use of pork as a weapon is the “Alabama Pancake” dreaded by Chicago policemen on domestic distrubance calls in Black homes. Lard or bacon grease is heated with lye in a skillet, then thrown on the victim. The grease makes washing the lye off impossible before serious burning occurs. Considering this option, Al Green was lucky his girlfriend only doused him with boiling grits!
When we were kids making night raids on people’s gardens, one old retired farmer would blast away at us with shotgun shells loaded with rock salt and bacon rind, lest deadly that metal pellets, but still an effective deterrent.
Good ol’ rock salt and bacon rind.
The rind raises welts that give you a whole lot to think about and the chunks of rock salt dig in deep, giving you even more to think about as they burn until you soak or pick them out. They rarely penetrate more than just below the skin.