Opinion: Dunkin’ Donuts Keffiyeh Controversy

By Maahum Chaudhry
Editor

Recently Dunkin’ Donuts withdrew a commercial featuring their spokeswoman Rachel Ray after complaints that the ad implied the support of terrorism. These complaints were based on Ray wearing a black and white paisley scarf resembling the keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress.

True, the keffiyeh has been worn by terrorists in videos showing beheadings, but the simple scarf is a cultural piece of cloth. Traditionally used to protect the face from the harsh desert sand, many Arab men wear the scarf slung around their shoulders or heads to protect them from the sun.

Dunkin’ Donuts decided to take the ad off the air after Michelle Malkin and other conservative right wing bloggers criticized it as a way for Dunkin’ Donuts to support terrorism. Malkin mentions that though many women have been sporting scarves of a similar style lately, they are ignorant that the scarf “has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad.”

The keffiyeh is part of the traditional Arab wardrobe for men. Just as many Christians wear the cross around their neck, Arabs wear the keffiyeh. Yet those wearing the cross aren’t accused of supporting domestic terrorism because Timothy McVeigh, the man behind the Oklahoma City bombings, was Catholic. In the same sense, it isn’t fair that such a common traditional piece of clothing be associated with terrorists because the people committing the acts dressed traditionally.

Malkin has the right to criticize Dunkin Donuts all she wants but the company shouldn’t have succumbed to such complaints. Despite wearing a paisley black and white scarf, Ray, America’s little sweetheart, with coffee in hand as she takes a stroll through the park, looks far from a terrorist.

There does not seem to be a reasonable cause for pulling the ad. Dunkin Donuts should have had the courage to overlook whatever criticism came their way.