Arabic Signage in Montreal & stated desire to integrate

Submitted by Nabil Shawarma (Canada), Mar 17, 2007 at 12:19

Dr. Pipes

I have reently been wondering why the neccesity for Arab speaking and iranian speaking owners of arabic restaurants, pizza shops, grocery stores to fill their banners with Arabic characters to the point where the sign is half Arabic.

My question is: 1) who is the audience? 2) do they not wish to advertise to non-arabic readers?

I have nothing against the writing of the establishment name in Arabic (as are establishments owned by other asian individuals) but why post portions of banners entirely in Arabic?

After all very few (if any) non-Arab people can read it and it is much less costly to leave portions of the banner blank.

What does this say about the public statements by CAIR or islamic talking heads about their desire to integrate while they are naming their boys muhammad or abdul and their girls fatima?

Any thoughts about this?

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Daniel Pipes replies:

These practices strike me as innocuous. Our problem is with radical Islam, terrorism, and other forms of disloyalty, not with the natural expression of culture.