International fashion chain Zara has apologized and stopped selling a children’s shirt after complaints that the garment evoked uniforms worn by Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.
The shirt has horizontal blue and white stripes and bears a six-pointed yellow star on the left side of the chest. A zoomed-in view of the picture on Zara’s website shows the word “sheriff” printed on the star. Nazi concentration camp uniforms tended to have vertical stripes that sometimes were blue, and Jews often were forced to wear a six-pointed yellow star on the left side of the chest. “We honestly apologize, it was inspired by the sheriff’s stars from the classic Western films and is no longer in our stores,” Zara said in multiple Twitter posts Wednesday. It tweeted dozens of similar replies in various languages to people who had posted objections to the shirt design. The shirt was pulled six hours after it first appeared in Zara's online stores, its sales "have been marginal," and it never was offered in the United States, a company spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times. "The items will be reliably destroyed," the company said in a statement <http://www.inditex.com/en/media/news_article?articleId=151777>. [image: Concentration camp uniform] A striped cap and jacket with yellow stars, part of a Nazi concentration camp uniform for Jews, on display last year at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) The Spain-based retailer, owned by clothing company Inditex, has run into a similar problem before: In 2007, it stopped selling a handbag whose pattern included a swastika. According to the BBC <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7002765.stm>, Zara said at the time that it had sourced the handbag from a third party without having seen the swastika. For more news, follow@raablauren <https://twitter.com/raablauren> on Twitter. On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 8:10:53 AM UTC-5, Travis wrote: > > > > > > > > > [[ Lots of pics on Google Images. ]] > > > JIHAD WATCH <http://www.jihadwatch.org/>Exposing the role that Islamic > jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts > Sears stops selling “Infidel” hats after Muslim complaints > > OCTOBER 19, 2015 6:02 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER > <http://www.jihadwatch.org/author/samir> > > Islamic supremacist Imraan Siddiqi complained to Sears about the hats, and > it was apparently his complaint alone that was enough for them to remove > the hats from sale. After he succeeded in strong-arming Sears into removing > the hats, he screamed “Allahu akbar”: > > This incident, along with the TPM article about below, is a good example > of how Islamic supremacists such as Siddiqi and the mainstream media > stigmatize resistance to jihad, trying to make people think there is > something wrong with standing against jihad terror. Krueger’s lead > paragraph comes straight from Siddiqi’s Twitter feed, and picks up his > attempts to smear and demonize resistance to jihad terror: Krueger > slavishly takes from Siddiqi the reference to “fringe websites” (which she > artfully renders as “sketchy anti-Islamic sites”), along with the nasty and > unfounded insinuation that this hat would only find favor among those who > attend “armed mosque protests.” Siddiqi and Krueger want you to know that > no decent person would be caught wearing this hat, which the Hamas-linked > terror organization the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), also > following Siddiqi, flagged as “Islamophobic” in its daily mailing. > > But what, exactly, is so wrong with a hat that says *kafir*, “infidel” in > Arabic? In his 2002 letter to America > <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver>, Osama bin > Laden declared, “The first thing we are calling you to is Islam.” In that > sentence and in his entire letter he delineated the global conflict as > between those of Islamic faith and those without it, i.e., infidels. It > was, therefore, entirely reasonable and understandable for those who defy > Osama and others like him, and who will never submit to Islam, to adopt the > name “infidel,” much as other groups have proudly adopted terms of derision > used of them by their opponents (“queer,” etc.). > > But in her sloppily edited piece, Krueger informs us that the Islamic > Society of North America, to which she gives the acronym “ISBA” (Borth > America?), and which she doesn’t bother telling us has admitted links to > Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, says that “infidel is not a correct > translation for Karif.” Karif? That’s *kafir*, infidel. How Islamophobic > of Krueger to get the word wrong. But in any case, the “ISBA” says: “Islam > does not consider people of other faiths as ‘infidels,’ and does not > advocate violence against them.” > > And that’s that, right? Except for one little problem known as the Qur’an. > “Unbelievers are those who say: Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary” (Qur’an > 5:17; cf. 5:72). The Arabic word used for unbelievers, or infidels, in this > verse is *kafara*, كَفَرَ. Derived from *kufr*, unbelief. The Qur’an also > contains an invective against the People of the Book in general and the > Jews in particular. The Jews “traffic in error” and, and wish that the > Muslims would “lose the right path” (4:44). They twist Allah’s words, and > Allah has “cursed them for their unbelief” — كُفْرِهِمْ, *kufrihim* (4:46) > — a word that is also derived from *kufr*. > > There, then, are two Qur’anic passages clearly calling Christians and Jews > unbelievers, or infidels — which the Islamic Society of North America and > many others insist the Qur’an never does. > > And does Islam really not mandate violence against those infidels? The > Qur’an says: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor > hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, > nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of > the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel > themselves subdued.” (9:29) Also: “And fight them until there is no fitnah > and the religion, all of it, is for Allah.” (8:39) Thus Muslims are > commanded to fight against the People of the Book if they don’t believe in > Allah or the Last Day and don’t forbid what Allah and Muhammad has > forbidden. And Muslims are to keep up this fight until religion, all of it, > is for Allah. Does that sound like advocating violence against people of > other faiths to you? It certainly does to me. > > So why did Sears cave so readily? Because Sears doesn’t know or care about > any of this. Sears just wants to make money. It doesn’t want to have a big > controversy, and denunciations of racism, and boycotts, and all the rest of > it that Siddiqi and his sinister ilk can make happen. It knows that Islamic > supremacists carry weight with the media (cf. this TPM piece) that the > defenders of freedom cannot muster. And so, predictably, it threw in its > lot with its bottom line. > > “Sears Says It Will Stop Selling Arabic ‘INFIDEL’ Hats,” by Katherine > Krueger, Talking Points Memo > <http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/sears-selling-infidel-arabic-hats>, > October 19, 2015: > > No need to patronize sketchy anti-Islamic sites to get “infidel” hats to > wear to your next armed mosque protest – Sears has you covered. > > As activist Imraan Siddiqi flagged on Twitter Monday, the big box retailer > sells “INFIDEL Baseball Cap Patriotic Hat Arabic” on Sears.com via a > third-party retailer. > > The hats, which the site shows were added Oct. 12, are listed for $19.98 > to $34.99, depending on the color. They are sold by Dreamway Trading, LLC > through the legacy retailers’ site. > > Reached Monday by TPM, a spokesman for Sears Holdings, the corporation > that owns Sears and Kmart, said that after unspecified “feedback,” the > company is pulling the merchandise. > > “This item is sold by a third-party seller via the Sears Marketplace. > Given the feedback we’ve received it is being removed,” the spokesman said > in an email to TPM. > > The hats appear to have been removed from the Sears site as of late Monday > afternoon. Sears Holdings did not respond to further questions about the > vetting process for third party retailers. Sears.com offers users a free > account to upload their wares, with the company charging retailers a $39.99 > monthly fee, plus a commission on sales, to sell through the site. > > Conservative groups repurposed the term “infidel” for an individual who > rejects religion as an anti-Islam rallying cry post-9/11. Touting “infidel” > has remained popular with the advent of anti-Sharia law hysteria, and among > the far-right fringe groups loosely united by a penchant for habitually > equating Islam, a faith that counts nearly 1.6 billion followers around the > world, with violent extremism. > > The term has also been embraced in some military circles as an > antagonistic middle finger to the enemy in the wars in the Mideast, > espoused by brands like Major League Infidel. > > According to a guide on terrorism and religious extremism from the Islamic > Society of North America, infidel is not a correct translation for Karif > [sic], the Arabic word used on the hats. > > “Islam does not consider people of other faiths as ‘infidels,’ and does > not advocate violence against them,” according to the ISBA [sic]…. > > > > __._,_.___ > ------------------------------ > Posted by: "Beowulf" <[email protected] <javascript:>> > ------------------------------ > > > Visit Your Group > <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmM2hqbjRhBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0NDUzNzM3MjM-> > > > > [image: Yahoo! Groups] > <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlNm81MWw0BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQ0NTM3MzcyMw--> > > • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> • > Unsubscribe <javascript:> • Terms of Use > <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> > > __,_._,___ > > > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
