Tag Archive for: infidel hat

Sears stops selling “Infidel” hats after Muslim complaints

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”:

Imraan Siddiqi

Imraan Siddiqi armedImraan Siddiqi Sears

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, 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, 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]….

RELATED ARTICLES:

Australia: Muslims threaten to murder journalists who report on jihadi mosque

Pakistan: Police fabricate false blasphemy accusation against Christian

EDITORS NOTE: For those readers interested in purchasing Infidel hats, clothing, patches and banners please check out this website, one of many.