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Finding Allah in Unlikely Places

by Daniel Pipes
September 16, 2005
updated Mar 3, 2006

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It is bad enough when Islamists insist that Islam win privileges that no other religion enjoys; worse is when they assert Islamic rights on the basis of imaginative insults.

	The sole of a Nike "Air" shoe.

	The offending Nike shoe logo, where "Air" supposedly looks like "Allah" in Arabic script.

That was the case back in 1997-98, when the Council on American-Islamic Relations pounded Nike into recalling 800,000 shoes because the English word "Air" in its logo allegedly resembled the Arabic lettering for "Allah."

The offending ice-cream swirl

Now, perhaps even more absurdly, British Muslims demanded that Burger King recall a line-drawing of an ice-cream cone, arguing that it resembles (what else?) the Arabic lettering for "Allah." A customer, Rashad Akhtar, branded the design "sacrilegious" and said he was "humiliated" by the design. He added: "This is my jihad. How can you say it is a spinning swirl? You are offending Muslims." [Mar. 1, 2006 update: This quote from Akhtar comes out more aggressively in a September 2005 Eastern Eye interview with him, reprinted now in Harper's magazine: "this is my jihad. I'm not going to rest until I find the person who is responsible. I'm going to bring this country down."]

Like Nike before it, Burger King did as bid and pulled thousands of ice-cream cones from sales. This won it the approbation of the Muslim Council of Britain, whose spokesman, Inayat Bunglawala, commended "the sensitive and prompt action to prevent any hurt being caused to the religious sensibilities of others." (September 16, 2005)

Oct. 29, 2005 update: I was sitting in a franchised coffeehouse named Così and was idly aware that one of its advertisements was upside-down on the table. Eventually I realized that the Così logo turned on its head offers another potential candidate for finding "Allah" in an unlikely place. Here is the logo on its head – note the steam rising from the coffee cup:

It is my hope that in making this resemblance known here to preempt by getting the word out first, and in so doing, pour cold water on anyone who might think of shaking Così down.

Feb. 19, 2006 update: David G. Littman pointed out today at the "Pim Fortuyn Memorial Conference on Islam 2006" that – of all things – the logo of the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights might look like "Allah" in Arabic. Below is a representation of it. Was this a purposeful subterfuge by an employee at the OUNCHR?

March 2, 2006 update: Reader "Carl" points to a related fancy in a comment below, dated today, which he found at a website: take the Coca-Cola logo, mirror-image it, tweak it slightly (as pictured here), and the result sort-of reads La Muhammad, la Makka, or "There is no Muhammad, there is no Mecca."

Sep. 12, 2006 update: I review the first story above in some detail at "Nike and 9/11," drawing conclusions about changes in the five years since 9/11.

Related Topics: Muslims in the United States, Radical Islam receive the latest by email: subscribe to daniel pipes' free mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.