Eating tomatoes and the problem of avoiding crosses


Tomatoes are up there among my favourite foods. Now there is a new reason to like them: apparently they are so Christian that one Muslim group has ordered its followers not to eat them. You can see why from the picture above with the blatant Maltese Cross staring out at us. H/T to William Oddie for this completely bizarre story.

Actually I'm not brilliant at eating vegetables and fruit but I do like tomatoes, whether sliced into a salad with oil and vinegar, spread in paste upon a pizza base (preferably without rubbery mozzarella) or taken from a tin to make spaghetti amatriciana or something similar. (BTW I did Biology A-level and I do know that the tomato is a fruit, so no pedantic comments on that subject please.) They are also very good sliced up in a sandwich with Wiltshire ham from the Sainsbury's deli counter. I am delighted to know that my tomato consumption now counts as an act of Christian witness.
The Lord is good to me. Da Dum DUM
His light will shine on me. Da Dum DUM 
When city lights dim my eyes...
(I have a good memory and will never forget the songs we used to sing at Mass at the Seminary.)

This new development launches Bara Brith into the Crusades. Her entirely peaceful posts on gardening take on a whole new politico-religious significance. Behold! She is launching tomatoes on an unsuspecting world:


Mind you, the poor Salafists are going to be hard put to avoid crosses in everyday objects. Look at that door panel! Aaaargh, don't drive through that X-roads! "Home Sweet Home"? - Are you crazy? What do you think those stitches represent? We must also be ready for an internecine conflict between English and American anti-tomatoists: "You say infidel tomARto, I say infidel tomAYto." Where will it end?

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