Muslims Enraged, Seething at Tasty Dessert (picture of infidel dessert included)

Cowardice, thy name is Burger King: Burger King recalls ‘sacrilegious’ desserts. (Hat tip: efuseakay.)

THE fast-food chain, Burger King, is withdrawing its ice-cream cones after the lid of the dessert offended a Muslim.

The man claimed the design resembled the Arabic inscription for Allah, and branded it sacrilegious, threatening a “jihad”.

The chain is being forced to spend thousands of pounds redesigning the lid with backing from The Muslim Council of Britain. It apologised and said: “The design simply represents a spinning ice-cream cone.”

The offending lid was spotted in a branch in Park Royal last week by business development manager Rashad Akhtar, 27, of High Wycombe.

He was not satisfied by the decision to withdraw the cones and has called on Muslims to boycott Burger King. He said: “This is my jihad. How can you say it is a spinning swirl? If you spin it one way to the right you are offending Muslims.”

A Muslim Council spokesman said: “We commend the sensitive and prompt action that Burger King has taken.”

By adducing it as in some way parallel to the PA crash site, I assume you are suggesting that.

No. I'm pointing out that in "Western Culture" (and in fact in many cultures) vertical objects arranged in an arc or curve, and arches, arches and curves generally (not infrequently illuminated to a golden or red color at night) are *common* forms of memorial and monumental architecture, that this tradition and not some "Islamic crescent" is what the architects of the memorial are referencing, and that in my opinion the people upset about this are dingbats ignorant of their own Western cultural traditions.

Here here are a few examples - these are one’s that came to mind offhand just thinking of “War Memorials” where I could quickly find a pic, there are literally thousands of others :

Australia:

http://www.deewhyrsl.com.au/images/photos/War%20Memorial/War%20Memorial%20Night.jpg
http://www.billdevine.com.au/andrea/sydney/images/80364%20War%20Memorial%202.jpg
http://www.rslnsw.com.au/uploads/Rose%20Garden%20Kokada%20Walkway.jpg

Germany:

http://www.berlin-info.de/deutsch/sights/big/s_15_b.jpg
http://www.longmeadow.org/gog/photos/War-Memorial.jpg

Italy:

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/E392M/SJ/Tomb%20of%20the%20Italian%20Unknown%20Soldier.jpg

UK:

http://www.kelso-online.co.uk/images/Abbey-memorial.jpg
http://www.dva.gov.au/images/commem/mem_day_large.jpg

USA:

http://www.soulofamerica.com/images/photosdc/BlackCivilWarMem_n.jpg
http://www.usafa.org/pages/images2/War-Memorial.jpg
http://www.custermuseum.org/Peacememorial.jpg
http://www.easternindiana.com/images/War%20Memorial%201.gif
http://www.coral-lab.org/~catalano/photos/arlington/arlington-Images/3.jpg
http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/airfields/si16.jpg
http://www.longmeadow.org/gog/photos/War-Memorial.jpg
http://briggl.com/travelogues/040922washingtonDC/images/thumbs/DSCN0899.jpg http://www.wvculture.org/history/12.jpg

USSR:

http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/skipevans/atl/russia/pg20-03.jpg

Wales:

http://www.mabot.com/images/2001/n5/0104-0735%20wales%20circular%20war%20memorial.jpg

And a few from non-Western cultures:

Iraq:

http://home.nc.rr.com/billyandjenn/Baghdad%20Photos/Tomb%20of%20unknown%20soldier02.JPG

Japan:

http://www.thought-and-memory.co.uk/photos/hiroshima_memorial.jpg

Singapore:

http://verify.idp.com/singapore/Aus%20War%20Memorial.jpg

Naturally, I was being rather sarca(u)stic; if people can't differentiate between a crescent and an arch, then we better get rid of the Roman aqueducts, and some of the old Spanish missions.

Ogee windows and doors also come to mind as verboten, along with eyebrow dormers. Are domes next?

Grain silos (I always joke farmers are the biggest group of amateur astronomers; they all seem to have 'observatories'!) may be mistaken for minarets

Maybe start using rectilinear horseshoes, and boycott Crescent Tools, too, though I shouldn't really give them ideas.

When I finally saw a picture of the Flight 93 Monument, I couldn't believe that a simple arc was being interpreted as a "crescent".

OTOH, the architect seems to be responsible:

"This is not about any religion per se," Murdoch said in a telephone interview with the Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown. "It's a spiritual space, and a sacred place, but it's open to anyone."

The word "crescent," he said, was used as a generic architectural term for a curved line.

"Sure, there is an Islamic crescent," Murdoch said. "Theirs is a lunar crescent. Ours isn't based on that."

So, he never heard of arc, arch, bow, ogee, conic section, catenary, or other 'generic terms' for a curve? Like certain artists who feign innocence when called on various things, he knew exactly how inflamatory it would be to so describe it.

The 'not about religion per se' tell me that it is about religion, de facto...but, I can choose to ignore that interpretation while looking at it, and think of it as an encompassing bow.

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