Pepsi, Muslims and the Jews
Reader comment on item: Learning in Arabic about Jews and Judaism

Submitted by Nancy Drew (United Kingdom), May 8, 2008 at 08:19

While in Morocco - I offered someone Pepsi to drink - although I was a little disappointed that I couldn't find Pepsi Max - and since Pepsi seemed hard enough to find - I thought offering this would be good.

The look I got at the bottle – it was like the person had seen a ghost. And I was told that they were not going to drink it - because Pepsi was Jewish.

I was like - no - I am pretty sure Pepsi is an American drink - created around the time they used to have the soda fountains - and that it is definitely an American invention along with Coke.

I was told that the Arabic word for Pepsi - was similar for the word for Jew or Jewish and that is why Moroccans had stopped drinking it. That it had disappeared altogether for a while and it was now back.

And it really was hard to find Pepsi there - unless you go to the big supermarkets - few that there are - but mostly I had to settle for Coca-Lite or Diet Coke.

This site is the right thing to do – Jews really do need to offer another opinion about themselves - in Arabic - if you look at Al-Jazeera English - it is mostly the Arab position that is presented (mostly in rant form).

Another thing Israel could do is to make a 24 hour TV news channel in English – which covers a variety of subjects – and get their point of view over to an international audience.

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