Nike and 9/11
by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
September 12, 2006
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[NY Sun title: "How Terrorism Has Failed The Cause of Radical Islam"]
Five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, it is clear how terrorism has set
back the cause of radical Islam.
The horrors of 9/11 alarmed Americans and fouled the quiet but deadly efforts of
lawful Islamists working to subvert the country from within. They no longer can
replicate their pre-9/11 successes. This fits an ironic pattern whereby terrorism usually
(but not always) obstructs the advance of radical Islam. For an illustration of this
change, consider an example from radical Islam's halcyon days in the late 1990s –
how a prominent Islamist organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations,
easily humiliated the giant manufacturer of athletic gear, Nike, Inc.
Nike had introduced its "Air" line of basketball shoes in 1996 with a stylized, flamelike logo of the word Air on the shoe's backside and sole. When the elders at CAIR
nonsensically declared that this logo could "be interpreted" as the Arabic-script
spelling of Allah, Nike initially protested its innocence. But by June 1997, it had
accepted multiple measures to ingratiate itself with the council. It:
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"apologized to the Islamic community for any unintentional offense to their
sensibilities";
"implemented a global recall" of certain samples;
"diverted shipments of the commercial products in question from ‘sensitive'
markets";
"discontinued all models with the offending logo";
"implemented organizational changes to their design department to tighten
scrutiny of logo design";
promised to work with CAIR "to identify Muslim design resources for future
reference";
took "measures to raise their internal understanding of Islamic issues";
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donated $50,000 for a playground at an Islamic school;
recalled about 38,000 shoes and had the offending logo sanded off.
The offending Nike shoe logo, where
"Air" supposedly looks like "Allah" in
Arabic script.
The sole of a Nike "Air" shoe.
Giving up all pretense of dignity, the company reported that "CAIR is satisfied that no
deliberate offense to the Islamic community was intended" by the logo.
The executive director of CAIR, Nihad Awad, arrogantly responded that, had a
settlement not been reached, his organization would have called for a global boycott
of Nike products. A spokesman for the group, Ibrahim Hooper, crowed about the
settlement: "We see it as a victory. It shows that the Muslim community is growing
and becoming stronger in the United States. It shows that our voices are being heard."
Emboldened by this success, Mr. Awad traveled to the headquarters of the World
Assembly of Muslim Youth, a Wahhabi organization in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, one
year later to announce that Nike had not lived up to its commitment. He flayed the
firm for not recalling the full run of more than 800,000 pairs of shoes and for covering
the Air logo with only a thin patch and red paint, rather than removing it completely.
"The patch can easily be worn out with regular use of the shoe," he complained.
Turning up the pressure, Mr. Awad proclaimed a campaign "against Nike products
worldwide."
Nike again capitulated, announcing an agreement in November 1998 on "the method
used to remove the design and the continued appearance of shoes in stores
worldwide." It coughed up more funding for sports facilities at five Islamic schools
and for sponsorship of Muslim community events, and donated Nike products to
Islamic charitable groups. The trade press also suggested a financial contribution to
CAIR.
Today, all this is distant history. CAIR still can bully major corporations, as it did in
2005 with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, but it can no longer shake them
down for cash, nor can it ride a bogus issue like Air = Allah. The public is somewhat
more skeptical (though not always enough so).
Successes like the Nike capitulation inspired an Islamist triumphalism pre-9/11. One
apologist, Richard H. Curtiss, captured its flavor in September 1999, when he called a
decision by Burger King to shut a franchised restaurant in a Jewish town on the West
Bank, Ma'aleh Adumim, "the battle of Burger King." He hyperbolically compared it
"to the battle of Badr in 624 A.D., which was the first victory of the vastly
outnumbered Islamic community."
Portraying a trivial lobbying success as similar to a world-shaking battlefield victory
provides an insight into Islamist confidence pre-9/11. No less suggestively, Mr.
Curtiss wrongly predicted that American Muslims would, "within the next 5 or 10
years," go on to win more such battles. Instead, terrorists seized the initiative,
relegating lawful Islamists mostly to fighting defensive skirmishes. Thus did mass
violence, paradoxically, seriously impede the Islamist agenda in America.
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3960
Finding Allah in Unlikely Places
September 16, 2005
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."
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
The offending ice-cream swirl
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.
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/513
The following story appeared in US News and World Report:
The following article is a summarized translation of the Islamic News Section of (al-Mujtama')
A weekly Islamic magazine published in Kuwait.
Issue #1248 - Thulhijjah 1417 - May 6, 1997
CAIR calls to boycott (Nike) for producing shoes with the word (Allah) on it
Washington: al-Mujtama'
CAIR called upon Islamic and Arab countries, and Nike's dealers in those countries to boycott Nike's products.
The call came after Nike produced a shoe that has the word 'Allah' on it. The shoe has been released to the
market recently. Hakim Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets demanded Nike to open an investigation in this
matter especially since Nike offended Muslims before. A year ago, Nike defamed the name of Allah (SWT) by
naming a basketball player "Allah" on one of their highway billboards. The efforts of CAIR resulted in removing
that sign. Nihad Awad, executive director, emphasized that "Nike disregards Muslim's feelings". He continued
to say "We have been trying to negotiate with them for the past few weeks to issue an apology and to recall
that particular shoe from the market. But they have refused all of our requests. That is why we are requesting
Muslim and Arab countries to boycott Nike's products. We call upon Nike's dealers to protest the company's
actions".