Dunkin' Donuts buckles to zionist hate campaign

I think that's a fair comment. The Dunkin' Donuts chain has pulled an ad which featured a woman wearing what looks like a kefiyah.




I first knew of this from one of those London freebie newspapers last night but searching the internet today I found this report in the Australian site, The Age, from yesterday:

The Dunkin' Donuts chain has pulled an online advertisement featuring celebrity chef Rachael Ray after critics argued that that a scarf she wore in the ad offers symbolic support for terrorism.

Dunkin' Donuts said today it pulled the ad over the weekend because of what it calls a "misperception" about the scarf that detracted from its original intent to promote its iced coffee.

Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, complained that the scarf appeared to be traditional garb worn by Arab men. The ad's critics say such scarves have come to symbolise Muslim extremism and terrorism.

This is unbelievable. The zionists are so quick to judge criticism of the Israeli state to be "demonisation" of the Jews and yet here's, presumably, a prominent media zionist clearly demonising whole cultures, Arab and Muslim cultures. Of course, kefiyahs are as likely to be worn by Arab Christians as Muslims. Now anyone wearing one is denounced for "hate couture" or terrorism or extremism. What should Arabs wear, shtreimels? Oh no, of course not. I suppose Dunkin' Donuts would assume they were West Bank settlers and then, in the interests of balance, they'd have to pull any advert featuring such Jewish head gear.

But searching some more on the internet, this keffiyeh as terror garb stupidness has a bit of a nastier history than a simple knee jerk reaction from a "conservative" blogger. An hour ago (that is an hour before 5 pm) the New York Times came up with this report:

On May 7, Dunkin’ Donuts began running an ad on its Web site and others, featuring the celebrity chef Rachael Ray holding a cup of the company’s iced coffee while wearing a black-and-white fringed scarf. In the ad, which was shot in a studio, she is shown standing in front of trees with pink blossoms and a building with a distinctive spire.

On May 23, the conservative blog Little Green Footballs posted an item that likened Ms. Ray’s scarf to the type typically worn by Muslim extremists. The blog said that the ads “casually promote the symbol of Palestinian terrorism and the intifada, the keffiyeh, via Rachael Ray.”

Later that day, the conservative blogger Michelle Malkin chimed in, likening the scarf to a keffiyeh and calling it “jihadi chic.” Then the story, as they say on the Internet, went totally viral.

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Hundreds of people posted comments, many of them condemning Dunkin’ Donuts. Ms. Malkin continued to blog about what she referred to as the “keffiyeh kerfuffle.” People who claimed knowledge of Islam weighed in, objecting to the ignorance of equating a keffiyeh with terrorism.

On May 24, Dunkin’ Donuts removed the ad from its Web site and others — and was promptly condemned by people who accused the company of caving in to conservative bullies.

Quite, except that conservatism is now redefined as racist islamophobic bigotry.

Sorry, there's a little bit more to be said here. On my net travels on this I happened upon the Canadian National Post. There a chap called Daniel Goldbloom justly ridiculed Michelle Malkin and Dunkin's Donuts...for their racism? Er no. For mistaking paisley for whatever pattern a kefiyah is. He said that it was akin to confusing the American flag with the Cuban one. I think that might confusing an irrelevance with a serious point. In fairness he does go on to condemn the shrill jingoism apparently pervasive in America today but he is wrong to give even a slight impression that had the scarf have been Arab and not paisley, then these hardcore on line zionists may have had a legitimate beef.