Posted on 09/19/2005 11:41:14 AM PDT by Millee
In the latest example of Western business interests giving in to pressure by offended Muslims, Burger King reportedly has withdrawn an ice cream product after complaints that a label design looks like the Arabic script for "Allah."
British media reported at the weekend that the fast-food restaurant chain pulled the "BK Cone" and pledged to redesign the label after Muslim customers complained.
The product label bears a pattern representing a stylized swirl of soft serve ice cream. But some customer looked at it sideways and thought they could see something else.
A London tabloid, The Sun, said Burger King fielded "dozens of complaints."
Another paper, the Scotsman, said Burger King "is being forced to spend thousands of pounds redesigning the lid." It quoted a Muslim Council of Britain spokesman as commending the company for "sensitive and prompt action."
Other business interests that have run afoul of Muslim sensibilities in similar circumstances include sportswear giant Nike, Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld and food and homecare manufacturer Unilever.
In 1997, Nike pulled tens of thousands of basketball shoes after it was told that the logo - the word "air" in flame-like letters - looked like "Allah" in Arabic when viewed from a certain angle.
Newsweek reported in July of that year that Nike had launched a program of "sensitivity training on Islam" and gave a donation to an Islamic school.
A year later, Unilever scrapped a new logo it had begun to use on Walls ice creams in the Middle East - again after Muslims said the intertwining red and yellow hearts looked like "Allah" in Arabic, when viewed upside down and backwards.
In 1994, Lagerfeld designed a dress incorporating a pattern he had copied from Arabic lettering on India's Taj Mahal monument. The lettering included the phrase "They are the ones who found guidance," used a number of times in the Koran.
German supermodel Claudia Schiffer received death threats after wearing the dress, prompting her mother to make a public plea for her safety. The designer apologized and burned the garments. He also destroyed photographs and negatives of the dress.
Coca Cola has for years struggled to dispel the rumor that the soft drink's trademark swirly-writing logo, when seen at a particular angle, looked like the Arabic script for "No Mohammed, No Mecca."
The company's website has a "myths and rumors" section where it contests the charge, arguing that "the trademark was created in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, at a time and place where there was little knowledge of Arabic."
"The allegation has been brought before a number of senior Muslim clerics in the Middle East who researched it in detail and refuted the rumor outright," it says.
I consider all soft-swirl ice cream cones to be miracles and bow down before them. With my ululating tongue hanging out, no less.
In a related press release, a spokeswoman for Bugger King says "We fry all our food in LARD".
The Burger King where I live charges 75 cents extra any time you use a credit or debit card.
If I was the CEO of Burger King, I would of told them to shove it.
On the Up side of this, that'll be one less reference to allah floating around.
Typical islamite perception - of anything.
"looked like 'Allah' in Arabic, when viewed upside down and backwards"
Funny, I thought they liked upside down and backwards. (Very backwards: say the 14th century.)
Too bad the second birth didn't take.... stuff it.
Ha ha, very good. I must be a little slow today, it took me a second to catch the reference there.
Believe it or not
NOT EVERYBODY sees something the first time
it's posted.
That is why I linked the first posting in case others would like to see the comments made on it....
An explanation would have been nice.
"Burkha King"
LOL..
I'm sure if lard is used, that will have to be stopped, as well. I think they use vegetable oil these days. I couldn't imagine working fryers in a burqa. Ugh. One wrong move or splash and you'd go up like an old Christmas tree.
Giving new meaning to 'fried to a crispy golden brown'.
Too bad the second birth didn't take.... stuff it.
FYI the second birth DID take.
Did yours?
It would appear their ad campaign is a smashing success. You're thinking about Burger King a lot more than you used to.
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