Chicago Muslims have their knickers in a twist over a greeting card, and of course Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is right in the thick of it.
A Chicago Muslim activist has spotted a troubling greeting card featuring an adorable hijab-wearing doll with an exploding message that equates smiling, non-threatening Muslims with extremist terrorists.Oops.
“Nothing identifies this doll as a terrorist in the minds of the card designers other than that she wears a Hijab,” Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), wrote in an article published by the Chicago Monitor on Friday, May 3.
“Moreover, she is a smiling, non-threatening normal-looking female wearing a pink Hijab and a flower-patterned dress.
“The unmistakable message behind the “humor” is that even the most peaceful looking Muslims are synonymous and exchangeable with terrorists.”
The card is a photograph of an actual talking doll called "Aamina, the Muslim Doll" which says things like "Assalamu Alaikum is the Muslim greeting, and it means peace be upon you", and "Let's play together insha'Allah, insha'Allah means if God wills it." Desi Doll company manufactures the doll and was designed by a mom who wanted to teach her three kids Arabic and Urdu.
According to Rehab,
“Islamophobic generalizations and negative stereotypes often hit those who are most visibly perceived as Muslim, and women wearing the Hijab are often the group hit the hardest."
Of the card company, NobleWorks Inc, Rehab said:
“There are those who will claim Muslims do not have a sense of humor."
“But one would like to think humor comes with (even a minimal degree of) intelligence.
“The notion that a doll, that looks like any other doll that any little girl in the world would play with, can be presented as a terrorist doll simply and only because it is a “Muslim” doll or because it has a “Muslim scarf” on its head is not what defines “funny” for a lot of people, but bigoted, ugly, idiotic, moronic, etc."
Read the whole story from an Islamic perspective.
You might remember Ahmed Rehab from the My Jihad bus campaign.
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