American Corporate Symbols that Border on Haram
A facebook group opposing the new Apple Store in New York city is growing. Its focus of protest is not on the legions of hipsters and PC-trashing applesnobs that will waste many afternoons there playing with gadgetry, nor on Steve Jobs apparent disinterest in his Syrian ancestry. They are peeved it strongly resembles the kaaba, the cloth-covered, cubic shrine in Mecca, which marks the direction of Muslim prayer and the site of pilgrimage.
The resemblance is startling, but aren’t we missing something more important?
Arab nationalists (less so) and devout Muslims (mostly) are offended by this and other symbolic violations, such as the famous Allah flame on the Nike shoes and the Allah ice cream on the Burger King packaging.
This revolt against symbols is interesting definitely as a site of resistance, as cultural theorists may call it. However, delegation of political opposition to symbols is not empowering. If Muslims organize at the level of symbols, what about real clear political issues that are life-or-death, such as militarism, imperialism, Islamophobia? If such cyberactivists and teeming masses were in Plato’s cave, they would be focused on the shadows, rather on their source.
By contesting symbols, they are playing for peanuts. Even victory is minor because it discredits the people who should be mobilizing for more important issues. Sure they can get Burger King to change the packaging, but what does that impress upon real politics?
Now if they were developing organizational capacity, by turning people’s sense of offense and frustration, into an institutional mechanism for playing real politics, that would be something else.
[Tarboush Tip: Yazan of Global Voices & Jillian]
