Dunkin Donuts Pulls Ad With Rachel Ray Wearing A Scarf That Looks To Arab?

Dunkin Dounuts pulls commercial featuring Rachel Ray wearing a scarf that looks to Arab after Michelle Malkin, right-wing Blogger, and other conservatives complained the scarf looked too much like a keffiyeh, what Malkin describes as, "the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad."

Did Malkin wake-up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? or maybe she just forgot to have her Dunkin Iced Coffee. How can she equate a scarf innocently worn by billions everyday as a symbol of "murderous jihadists?" This just demonstrates the misunderstandings of arab culture and how some people insist on having a narrow vision of the Arab world.

As I vacationed in the the Middle-East last summer I became quite familiar with the keffiyeh as everyone in the streets wears the light cotton head-dress (including tourists like myself) whether on their way to work, school or just to protect their heads from the brutal desert sun. I found this out the hard way after getting a bad sunburn on my scalp. I then copied the locals and became quite fond of the cool benefits of having a keffiyeh covering my head.

These scarves has been worn for thousands of years in the region by everyone from indigenous Arab men to Bedouin desert travelers. There are only three colors of head-dresses worn in the region, white, red & black. Usually the red color is identified by the Bedouin and the black by Palestine but by no means is there a universally accepted symbolic meaning. Red, white or black scarves are used by anyone with or without any particular political sympathy.

Anyone remember Che Guevara? Well, a keffiyeh does not symbolize terrorism anymore than a beret symbolizes a marxist revolutionary. Che Guevara, the popular murderous guerrilla leader, always wore a beret and now so does Prince William. Are these same right-wing bloggers going to now accuse Prince William of being a "guerilla warfare sympathizer" because he wears a beret??
And how about Timothy McVeigh, the American terrorist responsible for the Oklahoma bombing. He wore Denim Jeans! Are jeans going to now symbolize "American terrorist sympathizer?" Jeans are just as common in my country as the keffiyeh is in the middle-east.

Plus, this scarf has become fashion-forward ever since French Designer Balenciaga revamped one in his 2006 collection. It's common practice for designers to get inspiration from traditional ethnic clothing whether a Japanese kimono, Greek toga or an Arab keffiyeh. Sorry to burst your bubble Michelle Malkin but there is no political meaning behind it. Rachel Ray, Cindy McCain, Kanye West and all the others youngsters wearing the scarf in the streets of New York or Paris are not guilty "terrorist sympathizers" but only guilty of one thing, being "in style."

We must embrace one another's cultures and not be allergic to them, even if it is a culture from a region that since the gulf war (1990's) has been often presented to us by our president and the media as "the enemy."

Before Malkin and her conservative friends make these inaccurate cultural stereotypes and accusations they should inform themselves so as not to fuel the ignorance, which so often breeds hatred.

Still no response from the celebrity chef, Rachel Ray.

Me, wearing my keffiyeh in Petra, Jordan one of the seven man-made wonders of the world.