Nike and Islamic group end logo logjam
November 21, 1998Web posted at: 11:22 p.m. EST (0422 GMT)
FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (CNN) -- Athletic footwear company Nike and an Islamic organization broke ground on a playground on Saturday and announced that a controversy over a shoe logo is over.
Nike and the Council on American-Islamic Relations completed an agreement last week, officially resolving a problem that began in April 1997 when CAIR objected to a shoe with a design on the heel similar to the Arabic word for "God" or "Allah."
As part of the final agreement, Nike is building three playgrounds for Islamic communities in the United States, said Roy Agostino, communications manager for Nike. CAIR will decide where the playgrounds will be, Agostino said.
The first playground will be at Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, Falls Church, Virginia, where representatives from Nike and CAIR held a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday. Children from the center's school drew pictures of what they would like in their new playground. Nike distributed balloons and T-shirts.
In June last year, Nike apologized to Muslims for any unintentional offense, agreed to recall all products carrying the design, introduced training for Nike designers in Islamic imagery and agreed to investigate how the design came about.
After the recall, other issues remained, such as the shoes' appearance in some markets outside the United States.
"I think this agreement we signed with Nike a few days ago puts this whole issue to an end. And we hope that Nike will be now aware of the sensitive market that they have and the global issue that pertains with the shoes," said Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR.
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."
 The offending ice-cream swirl |
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 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.
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