Scarves, Terrorism, and Stupidity

Just to combine a few recent posts. This is a photo from today's Jakarta Post (courtesy of J. Leo / JP).

The first of these posts was the one about Dunkin' Donuts being forced to pull an Internet advertisement over a scarf that supposedly looked like this one! I think you can see the difference yourself between the two "scarves".

The second one is my lack of appreciation for cowards who cover their heads with masks or in this case a scarf and the terrorise innocent people.

The attack by the FPI and Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia highlights the indifference and apathy towards intolerance. It is sad. Many of my friends and colleagues have said that this is not the real Indonesia! This may be so but it is the face that Indonesia is showing to the world!

Indonesia is a land of opportunity, it is a land of immense beauty, it is a land of many diverse and wonderful cultures, it is a land that Indonesians must be proud of and reclaim from those who do her harm in the name of religion.

I am ready for personal attacks from people telling me I am nothing but a know-it-all bule, or that I have no idea, or that I can cut and run at any time, or who are you to tell us what to do, or any other piece of vitriol that one might be able to espouse.

Who am I? I am a man who has a wife who is Indonesian. I am a man who has a child on the way; a child who I would like to be born here; a child that I hope can grow up knowing their Indonesian culture and language; a child who can grow up in a land at peace and a land that embraces its diversity!

What happened yesterday at Monas was pre-meditated, it was despicable, and it was cowardly. The government can no longer afford to pay lip service to thugs encasing their "premanisme" (criminality) in the cloak of religion! If Islam is truly a religion of peace and tolerance then it is time the government showed that it was committed to these very ideals of peace and tolerance by arresting those responsible and prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law.

Any failure to do so, is cowardice on the part of the government.

The peoples of Indonesia deserve so much better than this!

Dunkin' Donuts Dunked for the Kaffiyeh

I was going to write about this a few days ago but I got busy and it slipped my mind. But late on a Sunday evening while doing some web surfing before catching some shut eye I came across the picture and it jogged my memory.

Dunkin' Donuts fashion people obviously do not watch enough TV because if they did they would not have chosen a back and white scarf that closely resembled a kaffiyeh. When it is all said and done it is a traditional Palestinian scarf. The scarf was made popular by one Yasser Arafat of PLO fame. However, it also seems to be the scarf of choice for terrorists of Palestinian origin and particularly those terrorists that wrap it around their head before cutting off the heads of their captives.

The advertising campaign was an Internet-based campaign. It was not running in newspapers or on TV. Well, at least, that is my understanding of it.

Do I think Rachel Ray is a terrorist, absolutely not! Is she a terror in the kitchen, without a doubt. Was she consciously making a statement in support of Palestine, buggered if I know. You will have to ask her that question. Was there someone in the fashion department with an agenda, who knows.

My take is that it is not the scarf that makes the terrorist. It is just a piece of cloth, it is the person wearing the cloth that makes the terrorist. I guess though after this little flare up it goes without saying that wearing a kaffiyeh is a fashion crime!

End result Dunkin' Donuts pulled the ad and apologized for any offence that it caused. Is this another example of political correctness out of control?